Be a Savvy Web Researcher When searching for vital statistics, such as divorce records and other background information on people, the Internet will feature countless websites touting their wares. If you are wondering which ones you can trust, here is a guideline intended to make you a more savvy Web researcher, courtesy of The American Press Institute.
- What type of domain does the website come from? If the information comes from a government website it will have .gov at the end and if it's from an educational institution it will end in .edu. These are credible websites. If it has an .org at the end, it is likely a special interest group and must be evaluated for its credibility.
- How current is the information? At the bottom of the page you should find a date. It is not a good idea to use information that has no date.
- Is the information on the website well documented? Can the information be verified by other means?
- Is there a way of verifying the legitimacy of the page's sponsor? There should be contact information on the page and this information should be more than an email address. There should be a phone number and/or mailing address so you can contact an actual person.
- Is it a personal Web page? Look to see if there is a tilde symbol in a sub directory followed by a name.
- Who has links to the site? A good way to gauge the credibility of a site is to find out who else links to it. Read the "about us" section of the site.
- Conduct a quick background search of the webpage or its author, especially if they claim expertise in an area. You can do this by plugging the author's name into Amazon.com to see if he or she has written any books on the topic.
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