Research



Websites don't contain publishing information on the homepage like a book might contain publishing information on the inside cover. You can easily figure out who wrote the book, published the book and the date it was printed and reissued. The internet has brought more information to students and teachers finger tips but sometimes this information's source is hidden. The only thing a website needs to identify itself is a URL. Websites don't have to go through editors before the information goes public. A URL may help to identify if a site is personal, private, non-profit, governmental and what country it originates but little else is know unless the website's authors disclose information and unfortunately they don't always do that. We don't want to discredit every piece of information that doesn't go through a traditional media outlet. We just need tools to cross reference these resources. The following steps might not be needed for every site referenced but might come in handy when coming across a questionable site.

1) Look up who owns a website using Who Is Domain Look Up

2) Look up the history of the site with the __ Way Back Machine __ Internet Webpage Archive

3) Look up who links to a site putting Link:WebsiteURL in Alta Vista

Who Is from Domain Look Up is one of the many services that lets you look up who owns a website. The Way Back Machine from the Internet Archive archives every page on the internet everyday. This lets you look up the history of almost any website. Link:websiteURL shows you who links to that website which would be a system of vouching for that website. Google search also does a Link: look up but not as extensively.

media type="custom" key="11483156"

media type="custom" key="11483200"

media type="custom" key="11483210"



Information Evaluation RADCAB

Checklist for Evaluation