 Welcome to the Search Strategies Tutorial. In this video, you will learn the difference between multiple databases and how they interact with each other. Understanding these differences will help you research more efficiently. What is the difference between Google, Wikipedia, Articles Plus, and other databases? Essentially, you will use different tools to search for different things. For example, if you are looking for the best pizza in town, you will probably use Google. If you want a brief history on the holiday Cinco de Mayo, use Wikipedia. And if you are looking for a book or research article, use the library's databases. Differentiating between databases will make your research more efficient. Let's think about places you can search for information as stackable Russian dolls. Some search databases are massive with vast amounts of information and some are smaller with more precise types of information. Internet content is a vast and wide-reaching resource and continues to grow every single day. This includes social media, news, specific websites like Wikipedia and Amazon, and even YouTube or Reddit. Search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo are used to broadly search the internet. They will try to anticipate what you want by using past search history, location, and profile information. Google and Bing use algorithms to predict relevant results. These search engines are free to anyone who has internet access, but there are no quality standards or structures to help you search. Wikipedia and Google Scholar are platforms that provide more specific types of information and are available to anyone with internet access. Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia where you can find summarized information on any topic. Google Scholar is a niched part of Google that will only search scholarly resources. Utilize these platforms to find higher quality information that delves deeper than a general search engine. Ohio University Libraries, Articles Plus, Alice, and OhioLink are examples of databases that are designed to help you find resources that the libraries have access to. These resources include books, journals, journal articles, data, newspapers, and government documents. Databases are more structured and do not use search history or personalized algorithms to predict results. Not everything available to the libraries can be found using Google. These resources are often paid for by Ohio University Libraries so users can have access to academic and scholarly information. That brings us to the smallest and final doll, subject and research databases. The types of resources you may find here are books, data, resource articles, or archival materials. Just like you wouldn't go to an outlet store for something that can only be found in small boutique shops, use these databases to find very specific and tailored content that provides quality information for your research.