Internet Research Skills / Trusted Websites

In this lesson we will learn how to evaluate website content. We will visit several websites and examine the content and determine who registered the site. We will also visit worldcat to search for text resources.


Not all website domains (.com, .edu, .org and .gov) are regulated.
All .edu sites are NOT strictly education institutions – some are commercial sites that were “grandfathered” in. Nowadays a site registering with a .edu extension must be an educational institution.

* http://www.australia.edu/ is a commercial site which existed before the .edu extension were grandfathered in.

Not all .org sites are created by non-profit organizations. Anyone can register .org site.

* http://www.martinlutherking.org/ is a website that posts hateful content, although it has a .org extension.

* Use the WHOIS Search to determine who created a website. (in the case of this .org website the WHOIS search leads us to the author’s website: http://www.stormfront.org/forum/)


Sites we trust for research:
* Government websites can be searched with Google's government search http://www.google.com/ig/usgov and from the usa.gov search page http://www.usa.gov/
* Ben’s Guide http://bensguide.gpo.gov/ is a government website that has information on how the U.S. government works.
* Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com/ searches scholarly resources.
* Google’s timeline feature is handy, and it usually points to reliable resources. In the Google search textbox, type John Lennon view:timeline
* Wikipedia - use the links to the cited web resources found at the bottom of most Wikipedia articles.
* Smithsonian Institution is a great resource for photos
* Biography.com as well as news cites like the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, CNN, Time, ABCNews ... all of these provide reliable information. However, the websites for these soures contain ads and distractions that waste time. In most cases you are better off starting your research in books, where you don't need to question the authenticity of the information and the distractions are fewer.


Searching for Books:
Use WorldCat http://worldcat.org/ – to find library books in your area
WorldCat notes: Enter text in the search box, then from the results list select a book. In the Libraries tab fill in zip code to find out which libraries hold the book that you are interested in.
Select the Review tab. Even though there aren’t many reviews yet in WorldCat, the Review section offers some valuable information. First, you can click on the “citation” link to get formatted citations. Next, you can click the “related subjects” link, show book reviews.

Spelling Counts
Most search engines do NOT correct for spelling errors. So, for example in WorldCat if you search on the author “Phillip Pullman” you‘ll get different results than if you searched on “Philip Pullman” (which is the correct spelling.

What influenes our vision of "trustworthy"
“…visual elements such as layout, use of color, and typography influenced their impression of site credibility. Ivory and Hearst (2002) report that visual parameters like font size, colors used, and persistent navigation contribute to the quality ratings of a Web site.” "UI Design Newsletter" Human Factors International Website Mar. 2005 <http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/mar05.asp#kath> Accessed 2 Mar. 2008