How to do research on the internet

What are domains?

Domain names contain clues to the organisation hosting the webpage. Using a domain name can help you decide if a webpage will be helpful to your research.

A domain name is made up of sections:

Put your mouse over the sections of the Monash domain to see what each one stands for:

Most US pages do not include a country code. Remember that many organisations host personal pages that may not express the opinions of, or be endorsed by that organisation. Personal pages often have a ~ (tilde) in the URL.

Understanding domain name and URLs can help you to make an educated guess about where you might find some information, especially about companies and institutions. Type your guess into the location or address box in your browser.

Most companies, especially large ones, use their name as the domain. For example: Microsoft is www.microsoft.com.

Much the same applies to universities and other higher education institutions, although they sometimes use acronyms. For example Melbourne University is www.unimelb.edu.au. UK based institutions use .ac.uk , e.g. London School of Economics is www.lse.ac.uk.