Evaluating Websites

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Evaluating Websites

• How Do You Know if that Web Page

ADDs UP?
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A Basic Web Page
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Anatomy of a URL
The name of the server where the web page is
stored. This is also called the domain name.
The folder on the server in which the page is
stored.
The name of the individual web page.
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Try This Onehttp//www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/lasc
/hd_lasc.htm
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Whats the What

• On a server called www.metmuseum.org
• There is a folder called toah in which there is
• A folder called hd in which there is
• A folder called lasc in which there is
• A document called hd_lasc.htm

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What Can We Learn from a URL?

• What server hosts the page
• Evidence that it is a personal page
• a name followed by a or a
• the word members or people in the URL
• the word blog in the URL
• What kind of domain it is from
• College or university .edu
• The government or military .gov or .mil
• A nonprofit organization .org
• A network .net A commercial organization
  .com

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Thinking about Web SitesQuestoning URLs

• Do you recognize the domain?
• Does this domain make sense for the content of
  the page?
• If it is a personal page, is the author qualified
  to give this information? Is the information
  biased?
• If it is a .com, .net or .org, remember anyone
  can get one of these pages. Why should you trust
  this information?

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What can we tell about this website?http//www.ms
u.edu/cloudsar/nrweb.htm
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Does that Web Site
A is for Author D is for Documentation D
is for Date U is for Use by others P is
for Purpose

• ADD UP?

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Authors Should Be

• Clearly stated with contact information available
  
• you may need to go back to the homepage to
  determine this
• may be an individual or an organization
• Qualified to provide information on the content
  of the website

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Documentation Should Be Provided

• bibliographies, references, notes, or other
  citations that let you know where the author got
  this information
• links to other sites should be relevant and work
  correctly

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Dates Should Be

• Appropriate for the time sensitiveness of the
  topic you are researching.
• Available for any kind of statistic. If a
  statistic does not have a date, dont use it.

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Use by others

• Do a Google links search to see who links to this
  site
• Are there plenty of links?
• Are links from .edu and .org sites?

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Purpose

• Clear
• easily determined
• may have to return to homepage to find
• Is the purpose to
• Inform?
• Persuade?
• Sell?
• Humor?
• Is there a hidden agenda?