F.I.R.S.T. Tutorial

Chapter Six: Searching for and Evaluating Web Resources
In this chapter: Using web search engines and directories; evaluating webpages as information sources

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Evaluating web pages

So, how do you evaluate a web page? Well, one thing you should always pay attention to is what type of site a web page comes from.

When the Internet was first designed, sites were grouped together by categories into six "domains".

 

The six original domains are listed below. Move your mouse over the domains to see an example of each one.   .com    commercial     www.microsoft.com    .edu    educational     www.iona.edu    .gov    government     www.house.gov    .mil    military     www.army.mil    .net    network     www.earthlink.net    .org    organization     www.greenpeace.org

Of these six, the most commonly encountered domains are .com, .org and .edu.

If the domain is commercial, then the primary purpose of the website is mostly likely to sell a product or service, and the information presented there will likely be colored by that fact.

If the domain is .org, then you will want to determine the organization's agenda and ask yourself whether that agenda might have an effect on the information presented on the website.

To find the domain name of a website, look at the very first part of the address. For example, consider this address:

http://www.iona.edu/library//tutorial

The domain name is www.iona.edu, and the type of domain is .edu, or educational.