The ABCs of Web Page Evaluation provide an easy-to-remember set of quick criteria to apply to any and all information you come across on the Web.
Authority (credentials)
Who is presenting this information, and what are their related qualifications? Is there an individual author listed, or is the information coming from a group or organization? If an individual author is listed, can you determine if they have relevant education and experience? Can you verify his/her qualifications? If a group/organization authored the material, who are they? Are they a nationally recognized group? How long have they been around? Who is on their staff? How about their Board of Directors?
Bias (objectivity)
What is the purpose of this web site? Is it designed to present factual information as a public service, or is its purpose to persuade readers to adopt a particular viewpoint? Does it exist to make a profit? Researchers can use biased information as long as they proceed with caution. Put biased information into context (“According to the National Rifle Association, gun control fails in its fundamental purpose.”) and be sure to double-check statistics and “facts” from biased sights against reliable, non-biased sources.
Currency (time-frame)
Is the material current enough to support your research?
For more in-depth evaluation, use the Web Evaluation Checklist Remember you can come across sites like this!
Structure of web page address/URL (Uniform Resource Locator):
www (World wide web).ChabotCollege (name of site).edu (Domain - type of organization) (edu=Higher Education)
Example: www.chabotcollege.edu
UC Berkeley's Tutorial on evaluating websites:
https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html
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DOMAIN |
TYPE OF ADDRESS |
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.biz |
a business |
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.com |
generally a commercial organization, business, or company |
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.edu |
a higher-educational institution, generally in the U.S. |
|
.gov |
a government organization in the U.S. |
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.info |
an informational site for an individual or organization |
|
.int |
an international organization |
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.mil |
a U.S. military organization |
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.name |
an individual |
|
.net |
suggested for a network administration, but used by a variety of sites |
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.org |
suggested for a noncommercial community, but used by a variety of sites |
Country code (two letters) for a country or other geographic entity—include .us (United States), .fr (France), or .jp (Japan)