Google Scholar (scholar.google.com) searches for scholarly material on the web in a variety of formats. Your search results may include scholarly articles, conference presentations, dissertations, white papers, PowerPoint slides, books and more.
The full text of articles will be limited as will the ability to do more precise searching like you can do in a database (for author's name, publication type, etc.).
It is a good way, however, to explore a scholarly topic to see what type of research has been done, to pick up terminology, and develop ideas. Use Google Scholar as a supplement too, not a substitute for, more targeted academic databases.
