Internet Resource Search, Evaluation and Citation Page

David M. Stone, Teaching Associate, University Laboratory High School, Urbana, IL

1. What are the major search engines? How do they differ?

Search engines are immense computer-created database of websites. The most common ones are AltaVista (http://www.altavista.digital.com), Excite (http://www.excite.com/), Infoseek (http://www.infoseek.com/) and WebCrawler (http://www.webcrawler.com/). They differ in the structure of their databases as well as how they physically search those databases.

I suggest you use AltaVista first in your searches - it will give you the greatest number of hits, though because there is no editorial intervention, it will give you the greatest number of false hits. AltaVista allows searching of both the web and many Usenet newsgroups. Excite uses a combination of text and subject indices to search either by keyword or by concept. You choose which way you would like to search, by clicking the keyword or concept radio button. Infoseek is both a search engine and a searchable subject catalog, with options to search Usenet newsgroups, e-mail addresses and web FAQs. Once the premiere search engine, it appears to have been bypassed by a number of the more progressive search engines. WebCrawler works in much the same way as AltaVista, being preferable for some who use the advanced features of search engines. Unlike Altavista, WebCrawler allows for "natural language searching," so you can enter a search like "highest mountain in the world," and have the search engine actually direct the majority of its searching resources to the more important words in the phrase. FINDSPOT (http://www.findspot.com) provides links and syntax information for each of the major search engines.

2. Understanding URLs

Each URL (Uniform Resource Locator) serves as an address for information residing on the WWW. Most URLs have three parts: the protocol, the host name and the directory. The protocol specifies how the document is accessed. Most commonly, you will see it written as "http," which stands for "hypertext transfer protocol." The host name (e.g. mork.uni.uiuc.edu) specifies the Internet-connected machine on which the information is stored. Be certain to look closely at the host name suffix, as well as other URL notation, in your initial determination of the validity, and potential bias(es) of a resource [e.g. ".org" for potentially biased advocacy pages, ".com" for business/marketing and news pages, ".edu" for pages ranging from serious research to student thoughts and hobbies, ".gov" for generally dependable informational pages or a tilde (~) located somewhere in the URL of personal home pages.] Finally, the directory includes the location of the particular folder where the document resides, as well as a full or abbreviated document name.

3. Checklist for Evaluating Sites

The following checklist for evaluating web resources is based on "Evaluating Web Resources," http://www.science.widener.edu/~withers/webeval.htm , one of several outstanding web-based education modules developed by Jane Alexander and Marsha Tate. I suggest using this checklist when evaluating credibility of advocacy, business/marketing, news and informational home pages. Evaluation is based on a series of questions which can be answered with either a "yes" or "no." The greater the number of questions with a "yes" answer, the more likely the source is of high quality. Questions in bold type must be answered "yes" for the source to be considered useful for research purposes. Five areas of criteria are considered in this assessment:

Criterion #1: AUTHORITY

• Is it clear which organization is sponsoring the page?
• Is there a link to a page describing the goals of the organization or, in the case of a company, its nature and products?
• Is there a phone number or postal address which can be used to verify the identity of the organization?
• Is there a statement of organization or company approval?
• Is there a copyright statement?
• Is it clear who wrote the page and is responsible for it, and its upkeep?

Criterion #2: ACCURACY

• Are sources of factual information clearly listed so that they can be verified?
• Is the information free of grammatical, spelling and other typographical errors?

Criterion #3: OBJECTIVITY

• Are biases and/or motivation of the provider (e.g. public information, sales) clearly stated?
• If there is advertising on the page, is it clearly differentiated from the informational content?

Criterion #4: CURRENCY

• Are there dates on the page indicating:
• a. When the page was written?
• b. When the page was first placed on the Web?
• c. When the page was last revised?
• Are there any other indications that the page is kept current?

Criterion #5: COVERAGE

• Is there an indication that the page has been completed, or is still under construction?
• Is it clear what topics the page is intended to address?
• Does the page succeed in addressing these topics, or has something significant been left out?
• If describing a product, does the page include an adequately detailed description of the product?

4. Citing Electronic Information

Two common ways to cite electronic information are presented below. I use this paper as the citation example. For further information, see "How to Cite Electronic Information" http://www.uvm.edu/~ncrane/estyles/.

MLA style:

Stone, David M. " Internet Resource Search, Evaluation and Citation Page." 13 July 1998. Online. Internet. [Insert the date you read or printed this page]. Available WWW: http://www.uni.uiuc.edu/~dstone/searchevalandcit.html

APA style:

Stone, David M. (1998). Internet Resource Search, Evaluation and Citation Page. [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.uni.uiuc.edu/~dstone/searchevalandcit.html

About the author:

David M. Stone is a Teaching Associate at University Laboratory High School, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. dstone@uni.uiuc.edu

This page is freely available for classroom and personal use, provided original sources are given credit. Please contact me if you modify this document for your own classroom use. I may want to include your modifications in my next update!

Created July 13, 1998.

Last Updated July 13, 1998.