5. Searching well and judging what you find

Week 1 of 2

What you will be able to do

  • Search the web with good keywords, and use simple search tricks to find exactly what you need.
  • Tell an advert from a real result.
  • Judge whether a website or a piece of information can be trusted.
  • Use AI chat assistants carefully, and check what they say.

Why this matters

Nobody in IT knows everything. What makes people good at the job is finding answers quickly and knowing which answers to trust. "Search for the error message" is the first step of almost every technical problem you'll ever solve.

1. Searching well

A search engine (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo) finds pages that match your words. Type in the address bar or on the search engine's page.

Use keywords, not full sentences. The words that would appear on the page you want:

Instead of Try
how can I make my laptop screen brighter it is too dark increase screen brightness Windows 11
what is the time in Nairobi now time Nairobi

Search tricks:

Trick Example What it does
Quotation marks "error 0x80070005" Finds that exact phrase
Minus sign python -snake Leaves out pages with that word
site: scholarship site:gov.ng Only searches one site or kind of site
filetype: budget template filetype:xlsx Only finds that kind of file
Add the year best free antivirus 2026 Gets recent results

If the first results aren't helpful, change your words rather than scrolling to page five.

2. Adverts and real results

The first results are often adverts: companies paid to appear there. They are labelled Sponsored or Ad. They aren't always bad, but they're there because someone paid, not because they're the best answer. Fake download sites and scams often buy adverts, so for software, go to the maker's own website (topic 10).

3. Can you trust it? Four questions

Ask Good signs Warning signs
Who wrote it? A named person or a known organisation (a government office, a university, the company that makes the product) No author, no "About us" page
When? A recent date, or a date that doesn't matter for the topic Old information on something that changes (prices, laws, software)
Why? To inform or teach To sell you something, make you angry or make you click
Do others agree? Two or three independent, trusted sources say the same Only one site says it; "they don't want you to know this"

Be extra careful with health, money and news that makes you angry or afraid. Check before you share it on WhatsApp or social media.

4. AI chat assistants

AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot can explain things in simple words, and they're useful for learning. But they can be confidently wrong: they sometimes invent facts, links or steps. Treat an answer like advice from a clever stranger:

  • Ask it to explain, then check important facts with a trusted source.
  • Never paste passwords, bank details, ID numbers or other people's private information into it.
  • For your courses, use it to understand, not to do the work for you: you're the one who needs the skill.

The free AI-Mastery Basics course on itlearning.tech goes much further.

Watch

Basic Search Strategies

LearnFree ยท 4 min. Searching the web well.

Try it

  1. Find the official website of your country's tax office or national ID agency using site: (for example site:gov.ng, site:gov.za, site:go.ke).
  2. Find a free CV or budget template using filetype:. (Don't download it; just find it.)
  3. Search for a health or money claim you saw recently on social media. Use the four questions to decide whether it's true, and write two sentences on what you found.
  4. Ask an AI assistant to explain "what is cloud computing" in simple words, then check one of its facts with another source.

Check your understanding

  1. Why use keywords instead of a full sentence?
  2. How can you spot an advert in search results?
  3. Name the four questions for judging a source.
  4. What should you never paste into an AI chat assistant?
Last modified: Sunday, 8 November 2026, 3:26 PM