Searching and evaluating sources

Why it matters

Nobody in a technical job knows everything. Experienced engineers, analysts and technicians search constantly; what makes them effective is that they search well and they can tell a trustworthy answer from a confident wrong one. A bad source can cost you hours, or worse, lead to an unsafe setting on a machine or a wrong number in a report.

Part 1: searching well

Search engines match your words against an index of pages and rank the results. You get better results by giving them better words.

Use the words an expert would use

Describe the problem precisely: the tool, the version, the exact error, and what you were doing. Compare:

weak:   my code doesn't work
better: python TypeError unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'int' and 'str'

Search operators

Most major search engines support these (exact behaviour varies a little between them):

Tips for technical searches:

• Paste the error message in quotes, but remove things unique to you such as file paths, user names and numbers.
• Add the version (python 3.12, excel 365, windows 11). Answers for old versions can be wrong today.
• Go to official documentation first for how a tool is supposed to work: the vendor's docs, a standards body, a manufacturer's manual. Use forums such as Stack Overflow for "has anyone seen this problem?".
• Check the date. Many results pages and forum posts show when they were written. A 2014 answer about a 2026 tool is a warning sign.

Part 2: judging what you find

Search results are not ranked by truth. You need a quick, repeatable check. A well-known method from digital literacy research is SIFT:

1. Stop. Before you use or share it, notice whether you know what this source is.
2. Investigate the source. Who wrote it, and what is their expertise or motive? A manufacturer's manual, a university, a government agency or a standards body usually beats an anonymous blog or a site selling something.
3. Find better coverage. Look for what other reliable sources say on the same point. If only one page says it, be careful.
4. Trace claims to the original. If an article says "a study found...", find the study. If an answer quotes documentation, open the documentation.

The key technique is lateral reading: instead of reading one page top to bottom to decide if it is trustworthy, open new tabs and look the source up elsewhere. Fact-checkers do this, and it is faster and more accurate than judging a site by how professional it looks.

Signals of a reliable technical answer

• It explains why, not just "paste this".
• It matches the official documentation, or links to it.
• It names versions and conditions ("in Excel 365", "on Linux").
• On forums: other people confirm it worked, and comments do not point out problems.
• For safety, health, legal or licensing questions: it comes from the official body (for example OSHA, NFPA, a licensing board), not a summary of it.

Worked example

You need to know whether Python's round(2.5) gives 2 or 3.

1. Search: python round 2.5 site:docs.python.org.
2. The official documentation for round() says values exactly halfway are rounded to the nearest even number ("banker's rounding"), so round(2.5) is 2 and round(3.5) is 4.
3. A blog post claims it is always 3. Lateral reading: the official docs disagree, and you can test it yourself:

print(round(2.5), round(3.5))   # 2 4

4. Conclusion: trust the documentation and your own test, not the blog.

Running a quick test is often the best fact check available in technical work.

Common mistakes

• Using the first result without looking at who wrote it.
• Copying code or commands you do not understand, especially anything that deletes files, changes permissions or runs as administrator.
• Trusting a page because it looks polished or ranks first.
• Ignoring the date and version.
• Treating an AI chatbot's answer as a source (covered later in this course: it is a starting point to verify).

Quick recap

• Search with precise words, quoted errors, versions, and operators like site: and -.
• Prefer official documentation and primary sources; use forums for real-world problems.
• Use SIFT and lateral reading to judge sources quickly.
• When you can, test the claim yourself.

Try it

Open the Do tab to find and judge a real technical answer.