Questions for evaluating websites

1. What do you think the purpose of this site is? What might the goals of the authors be?

2. Who is the author? If it’s not stated in clear view, try checking the contact information. How is the author’s authority established – or is it?

3. What do others say about the authority of this author? Type the author’s name into the search box at www.google.com and see what you can find out.

4. What organization sponsors the site? If this isn’t clear, try locating some hints—like maybe the e-mail address in the contact information.

5. Do an Internet search to locate the home page of the organization you identified. What can you find out about the organization’s mission?

6. What hints can you find in the URL? What kind of an organization sponsored the site? What kind of bias might be implied? The following list might help:

· .com for commercial interests

· .net for network service providers

· .org for non-profit organizations

· .edu for educational interests

· .gov for government institutions

· .mil for military installations

· .info for unrestricted use

· .biz for businesses

· .name for individuals

· About 250 two-letter designations for individual countries/regions of the world.

Does the site represent the organization or is it a personal site? (and therefore personal views)

· A tilde (~) indicates a personal web page

· Users/name indicates a personal web page

7. Go to www.register.com. Click on the Whois Lookup link just above the search box. Type the URL of the website you are checking into the search box, ending with the top-level domain (such as .edu, .com, .org, etc.) . Click on the “Go” button. On the next page, type in the CAPTA letters and click the “Verify Code” button. Be sure to scroll down the next page to look for hints in the contact information. You might want to do a search at www.altavista.com to see what you can find out about the names you see.

8. Find out who is linking to this site. Go to www.altavista.com and type “link:URL (with no spaces. Example: link:www.wou.edu). Read through the results to see who is sending people to visit your site. Does this tell you anything?

9. Find out who is talking about this site. Go to www.google.com and type in “info:URL” (example: info:www.amazon.com). At the bottom of the page, click on the link, Find web pages that contain the term

10. Check to see if there are reports that this information is a hoax. Try some of the following sites:

· Snopes http://www.snopes.com

· UrbanLegends http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/blhoax.htm

· Don’t Spread that Hoax http://www.nonprofit.net/hoax/default.htm

Note: type in and search for key words, not the website address.