Don't Believe Everything You Read on the Internet!

Welcome back! Help yourself to a piece of chocolate and roll up your sleeves - today we're going to check out some sites on the Internet and learn how to determine if what they're selling is anything we're interested in buying!
You will get a handout with some helpful indicators to look for when doing Internet research. You may not need to check all of these items all of the time, but once you begin to look for certain things, you'll begin to do it naturally.

Ready? Let's check out some of these web sites:
 RYT Hospital

 Garden help and information

CNN

NeuroGenesis

Women & AIDS


Other aspects of the web page to consider:

Objectivity

• Is the bias explicit or hidden?
• Does the identity of the author or sponsor suggest a bias?
• How does the bias impact the usefulness of the information?

Clarity

• Is the information clearly presented?
• Is the text neat, legible and formatted for easy reading?
• If there are graphics, do they add to the content or distract?
• If there are advertisements, do they interfere with your ability to use the page?
• Are the pages well organized?
• Are there mistakes in spelling or word usage?

Accessibility

• Does the site load quickly?
• Can you move around the site easily?
• Is there a text-only alternative for the visually-impaired?

For international and new domain names and extensions, go to:
Country extensions - http://www.norid.no/domenenavnbaser/domreg.html?sort=name
New domain names - http://www.internic.net/faqs/new-tlds.html

Adapted from Lesley University - Evaluating Web Sites