What are the most effective search tools and strategies to find unbiased information?

1 Define your query

Before you start searching, you need to have a clear and specific idea of what you are looking for. A vague or broad query can lead to irrelevant or misleading results, while a narrow or precise query can help you find more relevant and trustworthy sources. To define your query, you can use keywords, phrases, operators, filters, and modifiers that describe your topic, question, or problem. For example, if you want to find unbiased information about the effects of climate change on biodiversity, you can use a query like "climate change" AND "biodiversity" AND "impact" -opinion -blog.

2 Choose your search engine

Not all search engines are created equal. Some may have more features, databases, or algorithms than others, and some may have more biases, limitations, or influences than others. Depending on your query and your purpose, you may want to use different search engines to find unbiased information. For example, if you want to find academic sources, you can use Google Scholar, which indexes scholarly literature from various disciplines and formats. If you want to find alternative perspectives, you can use DuckDuckGo, which does not track or filter your search history or preferences.

3 Evaluate your results

Once you have your results, you need to evaluate them critically and carefully. You should not trust everything you see on the first page or click on the first link. You should check the credibility, accuracy, relevance, and timeliness of the sources you find, and compare them with other sources to verify their claims and arguments. You should also look for signs of bias, such as the author's affiliation, the source's agenda, the language's tone, the evidence's quality, and the counterarguments' absence or presence.

4 Use advanced tools

Search engines offer various advanced tools that can help you refine your search and find unbiased information. Boolean operators, such as AND, OR, NOT, and quotation marks, can be used to connect keywords and phrases and specify the relationship between them. Filters are options that allow you to narrow your results by criteria such as date, language, location, type, or domain. Modifiers are prefixes or suffixes that modify keywords and phrases and change the scope of your search. Additionally, advanced search is a feature that lets you access and combine multiple operators, filters, and modifiers in a single interface. For example, you can use Google's advanced search to find unbiased information about COVID-19 vaccines from government websites published in the last month.

5 Explore other sources

Search engines are not the only way to find unbiased information online. There are other sources, such as databases, libraries, and experts, which can complement your search and provide you with more insights, perspectives, and evidence. For instance, PubMed is a database of biomedical and life sciences literature from the National Library of Medicine. Additionally, your local or university library may have online catalogs, databases, and services that you can use for free or with a membership. Moreover, you can contact or follow professors, researchers, journalists, authors, or activists who are experts in your topic of interest and ask them for recommendations, opinions, or feedback. To improve your search skills and access more reliable and diverse sources, it is important to be aware of your own biases, assumptions, and expectations. Furthermore, remember that there is no such thing as a completely unbiased source or search engine; however, there are ways to reduce the influence of bias and increase the quality of information.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?