Navigation Menu

Introduction
What is a database?
Library Catalogs
Online Databases
Boolean Online Searching
The World Wide Web
Quiz

The World Wide Web:
Searching and Evaluating

The World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a subset of the Internet. World Wide Web search engines are basically electronic indexes of web sites and where the skills presented in the section Boolean Online Searching apply. The quality, accuracy, and reliability of sources on the WWW varies tremendously.

Unlike academic level materials located using library catalogs and online databases, most material on the WWW has not gone through a peer-review or evaluation process.

Don't rely on the WWW to be your main resource in researching a topic. Focus your research efforts in high quality, academic level books and journals first. Once you have a standard of quality, you are better prepared to evaluate any source of information, the WWW included.

Indexing: A Comparison

To demonstrate the importance and impact of index terms on searching, we asked the questions:

What's that stuff that plants grow in?
Is it soil, dirt, earth, the ground?

Librarians and database producers try to solve problems of variety and ambiguity of language by creating controlled vocabulary. Controlled vocabulary is used for periodical indexes and library online catalogs. An essential factor in good indexing involves the indexer's ability to think and to interpret meaning.

No matter how "good" the search engine indexing software is, it cannot perform a crucial function essential to all good indexing--it cannot think.

Interpretation is a very complex process and is beyond the capabilities of a computer. As a result of this inherent limitation, Web search engines often provide thousands of meaningless responses to a searcher's inquiry.

You need to apply your critical thinking skills when evaluating a Web resource.

Evaluating World Wide Web Sources

Unless you enjoy sifting through thousands of irrelevant WWW sites and your professors enjoy reading information from Fred's Sea Otter Heaven, you'll need some clues to help determine the quality of web-based sources. Here are some criteria on questions to ask.

PAGE AUTHOR

• Can you clearly and quickly identify the author of the printed     source or the creator of the web page?
• The author or the creator may be an organization or association

CREDENTIALS

• Can you determine what the author's credentials are?
• Look to see if the author has written any other works, including    books and journal articles.
• Is there an email address for the author or creator?

TYPE OF INFORMATION

• Is the information scholarly, popular, governmental or from a    private business?
• Are the web pages entertainment, educational, business or    personal pages or informative?

PURPOSE

• Is the author or creator making an argument for personal gain,    offering an opinion, giving a factual report (such as a news    item) or relaying a personal opinion?
• Can you identify objective writing (both sides of the argument)    or a subjective bias (expressing one's own point of view)?

• In the process of finding information to support your thesis statement, you should not limit your sources to those that only support your position. Understanding opposing points of view is crucial to a well-informed conclusion.

SOURCES

• Can you determine where the author gathered the information?
• Is the material from original research, experiments, observation,    interview, books and documents?
• Are secondary references (a bibliography, for example)    provided?

TIMELINESS

• When and where was the material published?
• Can you determine if the web page hs been updated frequently    (if necessary)?

STYLE

• Is the style of the author or creator of the web page clear and    understandable?
• Do the graphics of the web page get in the way of the text or    do they enhance your understanding of the material?
                      Written by Jane Jurgens of the Minneapolis Community and Technical College
  

The Internet Detective Tutorial is very helpful, well designed, and will help further develop your evaluation skills.

Search Engines

One thing to know about Web indexes is that no one Web engine indexes the entire Internet. A recent study published in Nature magazine, found that the major Web search engines index less than 10 percent of the Web. The study also reported that two-thirds of the Web sites indexed are commercial sites--not academic.

Each search engine indexes web sites differently. The web sites retrieved in one engine may differ dramatically from those retrieved in another.

For a comparison of search engines, click here.

We suggest: http://www.google.com

Domain Names

A domain name is part of a unique internet identifier. Every domain name has a suffix that indicates which top level domain it belongs to. This suffix can give you basic information about the origin of a web site and is often an indicator of the type of information you will find there. The most frequently used ones are:

.gov  Government agencies
.edu  Educational institutions
.org  Organizations (nonprofit)
.com Commercial business
.net   Network organizations
.mil   Military
.int    International