Some websites are created by experts in their field and are great resources.
Most are not.
How do you know which ones to trust?
Some people will believe that using a .edu or .org or .gov is an acceptable way of determining a website's credibility. Is it?
You can purchase a website domain (URL) for a small fee. You can have a range of extensions, including .org. Check out two (of many) sites that provide this.
No way.
.edu is only for Educational Institutions, right?
Some educational institutions provide their faculty, staff, and students access to their website so that anyone affiliated with that institution can make their own webpage that has the institution's name and .edu.
.gov is the extension for Government sites. Historically, these have been considered safe sites to find information.
Knowing a good source can be tricky. The author(s) will likely post materials about themselves that are positive and avoid letting the reader know who they really are. Try this trick:
Type a search like the one below into your favorite search engine.
-site:url.com url.com
For example:
-site:nytimes.com nytimes.com
or
-site:wsj.com wsj.com
These searches will bring back information about the site--that was not provided by the site.
A source or author very likely may have more than one site and may use flattery language on one about the other.
Search engines are rank based on the number of times people have clicked on a website. So a site with a half-naked image of a famous actress may be at the top of your search results--even though it has little to nothing to do with what you were searching.
The algorithms used by search engines such as Google and Yahoo do NOT address the authority of the source.
