Using the Internet   (Page 4 of 4)

Evaluating Web pages

It is important to evaluate any information you find on the Internet, because there is little control over the information that is published on the Internet. Lots of useful information can be found on the Internet, but some information is unreliable or downright misleading. First and foremost, the information you find must be relevant to your needs. After that, the same general criteria for evaluating information can be applied to evaluating Web pages.

Authority and accuracy

Does the Web page come from a reputable source? Is there an individual or organization responsible for the information? If so, are they reputable or trustworthy? Web pages with no apparent source of responsibility should be evaluated with skepticism, because if the information is accurate, there should be nothing to hide.

Objectivity and purpose

Is the information objective or biased? Does the information provide a balanced study of an event or topic, or does it advocate a particular cause or position? Does the information provide facts, opinion, or both? Objective information is not necessarily superior to opinion, but it is important to be aware of what best suits your information needs.

You may evaluate the objectivity of information by determining its purpose. This is especially true when evaluating information on the Internet. Is the information designed to sell a product? Inform the public? Influence public opinion? Is the information from a scholarly or educational source?

Understanding the Web address

A good way to ascertain the authority, accuracy, objectivity, and purpose of Web sites is to look at the Web address. For instance, if you look at the Address or Location bar in your browser, you will see that the address of this Web page is:

The first portion of the Web address (in this case, www.pccc.edu) is called the domain. The domain gives clues to the authority, accuracy, objectivity, and purpose of a Web page. The name or initials of the organization responsible for publishing the Web page often (but do not always) appear somewhere in the domain. As you can see, pccc appears in the domain of this Web page.

The portion of the domain that follows the final dot "." indicates the domain type. Identifying the type of domain is essential for understanding what kind of Web page you are dealing with. The following is a summary of the most common domain types:

• Domains of the type .com are by far the most common. These domains indicate commercial or business Web sites. These sites often try to sell something. This does not necessarily mean the information is biased. For instance, many reputable Web sites, such as those of news organizations and commercial databases, have a .com domain. This is because they are commercial, for-profit organizations. What they are trying to "sell" is their information.

• Domains of the type .edu indicate college or university Web sites. These sites may contain pages created by faculty and students, as well as "official" university Web pages.

• Domains of the type .gov indicate Web sites created and maintained by the federal government of the United States.

• Domains of the type .org indicate Web sites created and maintained by professional or non-profit organizations.

• Domains of the type .net are similar to .coms. These indicate commercial Web sites or networks.

• Domains of the type .us are not very common. These indicate sites of organizations under state or local branches of government, such as community colleges, K-12 schools, etc.

• Domains of the type .mil indicate U.S. military Web sites.

• Other domains, such as .ca (Canada) and .uk (United Kingdom), indicate sites from outside the United States.

Currency

How current is the information? This can often be determined by looking somewhere on the Web page, particularly the bottom of the page. Remember, current information may be very important for some topics, whereas other topics may not be reliant on current information.

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Also see:
- Web Site Evaluator (Utah Acad. Lib. Consortium)
- Evaluating Internet Sites 101 (SUNY Albany)
- Types of Web Sites (California St. Univ. system)
- Critically Evaluating Information (Utah Acad. Lib. Consortium)
- Evaluation Criteria Handout (Utah Acad. Lib. Consortium)
- Evaluating Sources (California St. Univ. system)