Google is a wonderful resource for certain types of information but not so great for others. The main problems with Google is the volume of information available and the lack of any filter for quality or accuracy. Search on almost any topic and you are likely to get 1,000,000 or more hits. Many of those "hits" are not to relevant information. If you want recent government information or background information on a topic Google is a good place to start. However many journal articles or e-books are not available for free on the Internet. Google Scholar is a source to try for journal articles. The University of Toledo subscribes to journals, e-books, and standards that are only available because we pay for them. Also the resources we provide access to have been evaluated by librarians or others with expertise in the appropriate subject area. With Google the information might be high quality or it might not. There is no screening or evaluation so it is harder to know a good source from a bad one.
One thing to look for when deciding if a source you found on Google is good is the author or organization who is responsible for the site or the page you are looking at. If there isn't anyone listed as the author or responsible organization it will be difficult to know if there are biases or incorrect information on the site. Also look for the date the page was last updated and for spelling or grammatical errors. For more tips on evaluating Websites see Basic Criteria for Evaluation Web Information.
If you use it on campus, you can take advantage of some of our full-text subscriptions.