Whether you are starting with Google or one of the library databases, you need to think about how you are going to search for your information. Choosing the right search terms and search strategy can make the difference between getting a handful of good results and spending a lot time sifting through irrelevant results.
Think about your topic
It's tempting to jump into a search box and use a general search term to start. Let's say you're doing a paper on anxiety. Just using the term anxiety will return millions of results. So you need to think about what it is about anxiety that you want to look into. Are you interested in anxiety around a certain population? The effect of anxiety on work performance? Treatments for anxiety? Think of ways to make your topic more specific so that your results will be more managable.
Try a Boolean Search
Once you've thought about the different aspects of your topic, think about how you can approach the search terms using the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT.
AND will usually help focus your search, since you're asking for results that contain multiple search terms, such as "anxiety AND college students."
OR will help widen your search by including alternative terms, "teenager OR teen OR adolescent OR young adult"
NOT will narrow your search by eliminating approaches that you don't want, "penguins NOT hockey"
Advanced Search
Databases and Google both offer advanced search screens that will provide a visual for expanding or narrowing your search.
Reverse Image Search
Have a photo of a plant or a location or a statue and you're not sure what it is? Both Google and Bing offer a reverse image search. Just click on the camera in the far right of the search box to upload your photo and they'll try to find a match for you.