Evaluate Information You Find on the Internet

Can you tell good information from misinformation? A search in google.com for information on railroads will give you an eighth-grade report, a commercial site, and a hobbyist page. Do you know which site has information you can use in your paper?

The Internet can be a very useful research tool, but it can also be very misleading. For instance, say you have a paper due on making wine. Check out the following site:

The most important lesson in evaluating Internet resources:
Beware of inaccurate content until you can prove otherwise.

Here are five major clues that will help you determine whether or not to trust the information on a website:
Clue #1	Authority. Who is the author? Most scholarly and professional sites will provide the full name and contact information for the author of the content on the site. A complete address is better than just an e-mail address, as it gives you more information about the author. Also, look for any credentials listed. Is the author affiliated with a professional organization or educational institution?
Clue #2	Accuracy. How accurate is the information on the website? This can sometimes be difficult to tell, especially if you are doing initial research for a project. Look for bibliographies or works cited, and look at the sources to see if they sound legitimate. Also, check to see if any part of the information can be verified in another source, such as an encyclopedia or a reference source. Take a look at any statistics given in the material - do they sound too good to be true? If they don't mesh with the rest of the research in the field, they are probably inaccurate. One final tip: look for obvious errors like misspellings and incorrect facts (i.e., don't trust a website that tells you Christopher Columbus sailed in 1392).
Clue #3	Objectivity. What is the purpose of the page? Many pages are on the web in order to sell you a product. Many others are there to persuade others of a particular viewpoint. Try to determine the purpose of a page before you trust its content. One thing to look for is excessive advertising on the page. You should be able to easily distinguish the advertisements from the page content - if you can't, be wary.
Clue #4	Currency. How old is the page and the information on it? A page with quality information should note somewhere on the page when it was created, and possibly even when it was last updated. Check the works cited or bibliography to see how old the sources are. Also, look to see if the links on the page work. If most of them are broken, the page is probably outdated and not being maintained. In addition, check to see that all of the facts on the page are current. Pages that still refer to the Clinton administration in the present tense should be suspect.
Clue #5	Page Design. How professional does the page look? Personal home pages often have colorful backgrounds and flashing, animated images that make the page difficult to read. In a professional or educational site, the content will be the main focus of the page, not the design. It should be easy to navigate the website, with links to each page within the site. The images should complement the content of the page rather than detract from it. However, keep in mind that just because a page looks accurate, factual, and professional doesn't mean that it necesarily is: there are some very talented high school web designers out there.

The bottom line is that there is no hard and fast rule for determining whether or not the information on a web page is accurate or not. Taking the above clues into consideration will help you evaluate the content on a website, but it is not foolproof. In other words, always be wary of information you find on the Internet. Because it is not reviewed and selected by your professor or a librarian, it won't ever be as trustworthy as the material you will find in the library or in a database. Use the Internet, but use it with caution!