Search expert Barbara G. Friedman emphasizes the importance of knowing how to evaluate Web site reliability in her book Web Search Savvy: Strategies and Shortcuts for Online Research (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2005,) (3) . In Credibility at a Glance, she notes that one “quick measure of a Web site's credibility is to look at the domain.”
Friedman explains:
To evaluate Web sites, you can begin by making a general check of the site's contents Does it seem reliable? Some sites are obviously bogus. The Onion, a satirical newspaper carries headlines and stories that few people would take
seriously, such as “United States Toughens Image with Umlauts” (4) . But with most sites or data, just trusting your gut isn't enough…
Many journalists apply a hierarchy of trust when judging the credibility of a site. It's actually not all that different from the standards applied to traditional information sources. For example, government information is considered the most reliable, probably because there are copious checks of (and restrictions on) the contents of federal .gov sites, and of the individuals who develop and maintain them. The Web sites of U. S. Senators, for example, must meet with restrictions set forth by the Secretary of the Senate, and are monitored for compliance by the Senate Webmaster. Military sites also rank high on the trust scale, for the same reason.
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WEB SEARCH: WHO DO YOU TRUST?
SOURCE: QUESTIA (1) NEWSLETTER
CONTRIBUTOR: B. VIALE (2)