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World Wide Web Searching Strategies & Hints  |  Evaluating Web Sites  | Document Your Research
 

WORLD WIDE WEB SEARCHING STRATEGIES & HINTS

If you are looking for a specific company’s or organization’s web site and you’re not sure of the URL (web “address”), try the name or initials without spaces (e.g., http://www.donnakaran.com for the Donna Karan company’s home page, or http://www.astm.org for the American Society for Testing and Materials web site). If this does not work, search for the company name as a subject, as described below. To find information on any specific topic, use a portal (‘door’ to the internet or ‘starting point’), such as AltaVista, HotBot, Lycos, MSN, Netcenter, or Yahoo, which typically contains a search engine, directory, news, shopping, and other links. You can also try a more pared-down search engine that does not have the other features such as Google or Ixquick. Search engines let you type in a word or phrase (including a company name) and will search for any Internet site (including those listed in the directory portion of the portal) containing those words; use the “help”, “tips”, or “advanced search” section of a specific search engine to see how to enter multiple words or a phrase and get the best results. Internet directories let you look for information on a topic by continually narrowing down the topic until one of their selected sites seems appropriate. For example, to find information on Yahoo about the Academy Awards, you can choose the category ”Entertainment”, then “Movies and Film”, then “Awards”, then “Academy Awards”. Try both strategies to see which process and results you prefer. Instead of doing a very general search on the Internet, try to figure out where the best information might be found. For example, for statistical information on a certain industry, you might try searching on the web site of an appropriate trade association. To find the URLs of these associations, you can look in a book such as the Encyclopedia of Associations (available at the Reference Desk). If you are looking for reliable information on a variety of topics, try one of the many magazine, newspaper, or news sites, most of which are searchable by keyword or phrase. You can go directly to a specific magazine or news site if you know its URL, or use a site, such as http://www.lii.org or http://www.newsdirectory.com, that has many links to individual news sites. Links from and to a website may refer you to other useful sites, and may also be a good indication of relative value and/or popularity. When looking at these links, note both the number of links as well as whether they are referring you to similar (e.g., from one educational [.edu] site to another) or dissimilar sites. To link from your original site, simply click on the hyperlink given. To find your site’s “link popularity” (i.e., which other sites refer to it), use the ‘link’ feature of many search engines. For example, in Yahoo, Google, and AltaVista, you can enter link:www3.fitnyc.edu to get a list of sites that have linked to FIT’s website. Use Web Search Engines to find a variety of search engines to help you with your research.

EVALUATING WEB SITES

The Internet can be a wonderful resource, especially for very up-to-date information or for very obscure topics, but it is an unregulated medium; some sources are useful and reliable, some are incorrect or misleading. Learn how to evaluate Web sites by considering the following questions. I. AUTHORITY: 1. TEXT AUTHOR: Is there a name of an individual or institutional author given for the article, page or site? Does the site indicate the author’s qualifications as an expert on the subject? This may include the author’s education and experience, an institution’s reputation, and more. Are these qualifications appropriate? Does the site’s or author’s affiliation with an institution or company appear to bias the information? 2. SITE PRODUCER/HOST In addition to the text author or where no individual author can be identified, consider: Who is hosting the site? Is the host the source of information? Does the host have appropriate qualifications/experience in the subject? What is the domain of the host? (official category of site producer): “.com” is for a commercial or business site, “.edu” is for an educational site, “.gov” is for government, “.org” is for organization, and a “~” (tilde sign) in the URL usually indicates an individual/personal Web site. 3. CONTACT INFORMATION: Provision of contact information indicates a concern for site maintenance. Is there a form or method to make comments or ask questions about the site? Is there a contact person, email address, telephone number or mailing address given? II. CONTENT: 1. INFORMATION: Is the purpose of the site clear? Is the information level appropriate to you? Is the information opinion or fact? Is there evidence of bias? Is it clear what is advertising and what is editorial material? 2. ACCURACY: Is the information accurate? What is the source of the information? Is the source for each image, table, & graph indicated? Is a bibliography of sources included? Is the information verifiable someplace else? Is clearer, more accurate, information with fuller coverage available elsewhere? Evaluate the information accuracy and coverage by comparing to information in other sources, including books, other print and non-print resources. You may decide to use these other sources instead of or in addition to the web site you are evaluating. Are the spelling, grammar, and composition of the text correct? Errors, such as those in spelling and grammar, suggest a lack of attention to accuracy and may indicate a similar lack of attention to accuracy in the information on the site. 3. CURRENCY: Does the site include the creation date and/ or revision date? Has the site been updated recently? III. DESIGN AND NAVIGATION: Concern with good site design and ease of navigation is another indication of overall care for the site. On a poorly designed, “user-unfriendly” site, you may miss available information without realizing it. Is the site easy to use and to access? Is it clearly and logically arranged? Is there a site map or table of contents available? Are there links? Are they active and clearly labeled? Do they provide additional information? A significant number of inactive (“file not found”) or “site-moved” links may indicate the site is not updated and well maintained. Are there graphics? Are they useful and accessible? FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON SEARCHING AND EVALUATING WEB SITES TRY:   Basch, Reva. Researching Online for Dummies. Foster City, CA: IDG Books Worldwide, 1998. MAIN ZA4201 . B36 1998 Bibliography on Evaluating Web Information. 2002. Virginia Tech University Libraries.  http://www.lib.vt.edu/research/evaluate/evalbiblio.html Bradley, Phil. Internet Power Searching: The Advanced Manual. New York: Neal-Schuman, 1999. MAIN ZA4201 .B69 1999 Cooke, Alison. Neal-Schuman.  Authoritative Guide to Evaluating Information on the Internet. New York: Neal- Schuman, 1999. Reference Stacks ZA4201 .C66 1999 Internet Tutorials, University at Albany Libraries. 2002. University at Albany, State University of New York. http://library.albany.edu/internet Schrock, Kathleen. Evaluating Internet Web Sites: An Educator’s Guide. Manhattan, Kansas: The MASTER Teacher, Inc., 1997. Reference Desk TK5105.888 .S35 1997 Section C   For additional books the library’s StyleCat Library Catalog  under the Subject headings: Computer network resources—Evaluation; Electronic information resource searching; Internet searching; Web sites--Evaluation

DOCUMENT YOUR RESEARCH

If you use information from the Internet, you must cite the specific web site, just as you would cite a book or magazine article that you use. In this way, you will also avoid the serious problem of PLAGIARISM (using another person’s ideas or words in your writing without acknowledging the source). For suggestions of appropriate format for bibliographic citations, refer to the Library Research Guide/Research Tips: Documenting Information: Formats for Bibliography and Footnotes.