When you are searching an environment that is not really organized, there is no quality control, and anybody can be the author, you need to seriously take a look at what you find. In some ways, evaluating a web site is like being a detective. Who is providing this information? How do I know what it states is real? How can this particular web page compare with what a published book or article will provide me? Fortunately, there are some clues you can look at. The URL: The URL can definitely give you clues. Every URL has a domain that can tell you what type of institution it at least is supposed to come from, and there are also good clues to let you know whether the page you are looking at is a personal web site or not. The structure of the web page and web pages as a collection. You may be able to learn more about the sponsoring institution and the author this way. The content of the
web page itself: This is the most time consuming part, but yes,
you need to look at the content carefully. Look at pages with
a more skeptical eye than you ordinarily would. Search engines
are unable to look at quality and to judge, so when you use a
general search engine, it is up to YOU to determine if the web site
you are looking at is worthy of research. |
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