How to Evaluate Web sites

The Internet is unlike other sources of information that you use. Books, magazines, newspapers, television and radio programs, and CD-ROMs all have editors who try to make sure that their contents are correct before they are released to the public. But anyone who has the right tools can create a Web site, and there may be no editing or checking of facts before the pages become available to you. So you have to learn to evaluate sites, to judge whether they are reliable or not. There are several ways to evaluate a site's usefulness.

Consider how you found out about the site
Was the site recommended in a textbook or bookmarked as a favorite on your school computer? Then it's probably OK.

If you found it through a search engine that's recommended for young people, such as Yahooligans or StudyWeb, then it's likely that the site has already been evaluated and approved.

If you found it by typing a word or two into Yahoo! or another general search engine, then you should be particularly cautious. This is also true if you arrive at a site by following a link from another site.

Consider the sites' author or affiliation
If it's PBS or the Discovery Channel or a university department, you can probably trust the content. However, if the author is someone interested in the subject as a hobby, or a class who created the site as part of a school project, there may be errors.

The address (URL) of the site can give you some clues.

• Addresses that end .gov and .org belong to government agencies and organizations such as libraries and museums. These are usually good sources of information.
  
  
• Addresses that end .com have been created by businesses and may have a lot of advertising or may be trying to sell you a particular product.
  
  
• Sites that have k12 in the address are schools; those with .edu are colleges and universities. This doesn't necessarily mean the information will be accurate, but it's a good sign.
  
  

On many sites, you will find a button called "About" that will tell you all about the site and its creators. If you don't see that, perhaps a Site Map will help.

Check a few facts
Even after you've established that the site was created by people who should know what they're talking about, it's a good idea to check a couple of facts presented on the screen. Are dates the same as those in the encyclopedia, for example? If there are photos, is there a list of photo credits?

Look for errors
Any site that includes misspellings and grammatical errors is likely to contain errors of fact too.

Can you tell how recently the site was updated?
Some sites don't need to be up to date. If you're looking for information on Abraham Lincoln or on a kind of tree, the details will not change frequently. But if you are researching the current United States president or looking for the latest news, you will want to check that the site has been updated recently. Look for a line (usually at the bottom of the screen) saying something like "This page updated on" and make a note of the date.

These are just some basic tips on evaluating Web sites. If you accidentally find a site that is offensive, leave it immediately. If you have doubts about a site, ask your teacher or another adult to help you evaluate it.