Evaluating Websites
Or, How to Surf the Best Waves
Want
to know how others surf the web?
Check out this fascinating
article: Internet Accuracy
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It's second nature for most of us to hop on our keyboards and surf
the web when we need information. Once we're out there, it's an
ocean full of good and bad stuff: pristine waters, whales, sharks,
or the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Your mission is to surf the best of the web's waves. Here are
6 questions to help you evaluate a website once you've
landed on it:
- What is the nature of the site? More specifically,
does it serve a commercial, civic, scholarly or other
purpose?
- Who is the intended audience? In other words,
what is expected of the individuals who frequent the website?
- Who authored the information on the site? Is
anything attributed to specific individuals? If so, are verifiable
credentials cited for the named individual(s)?
- Is the information accurate? Can it be corroborated
by other, reliable sources? How was the information gathered (does
it tell you)? Does the information make logical sense in light
of known facts? Are references (footnotes, bibliography) provided
that can be checked?
- Who is the publisher and/or sponsor of the website?
Where does the funding that supports the website originate? What
are the discernable biases of this entity?
- How current is the information presented? Are
dates indicated? Can older information be located in an online
archive?
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Strategies for answering
these 6 questions include:
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- Analyzing a website's URL
- Scanning the perimeter of the page
- Identifying key indicators of quality
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