It's almost assumed nowadays that any kind of research process will at one point use some non-academic search tool, such as Google or Wikipedia. However, all websites are not created equal:
.com - Commercial site. While this information might not necessarily be false, you might be getting only part of the picture. Remember, there's a monetary incentive behind every commercial site in providing you with information.
.edu - Educational institution. Information from sites within this domain must be examined very carefully since students' personal webpages are not usually monitored by the school even though they are on the school's server and use the .edu domain.
.gov - Government. If you come across a site with this domain, then you're viewing a federal government site. All branches of the United States federal government use this domain. The information is considered to be from a credible source.
.org - A non-profit organization. Examine sites carefully as they may exhibit bias. Some commercial interests might be the ultimate sponsors of a site with this suffix.
Do not forget to check the "About" sections of these websites...