"students barely care about who or what is showing up when they click on that top link" #wymhm

Students did acknowledge that certain websites—mostly those ending in .gov, .edu—were more credible than others because they weren't written by "just anybody." However, some felt the same way about .org sites, and were unaware that .org domains could be sold to anyone (and therefore have about the same credibility as any .com out there).

Still, the takeaway is that a large majority of students give more weight to the search tool they're using than the sites they're finding via those searches. The paper quoted numerous students professing their particular love for Google, or talking about how Microsoft's search services are credible because Microsoft is a "more professional" company—basically, search engine brands meant a lot to the students using them, and those students seem to place credibility on the automated search rankings provided by those services.