What makes websites reliable

Sites on the Web are grouped by their URLs according to the type of organization providing the information on the site. For example, any commercial enterprise or corporation that has a Web site will have a domain suffix of. The domain suffix provides you with a clue about the purpose or audience of a Web site. The domain suffix might also give you a clue about the geographic origin of a Web site.

Many sites from the United Kingdom will have a domain suffix of. Here follows a list of the most common domain suffixes and the types of organizations that would use them. The information provided by commercial interests is generally going to shed a positive light on the product it promotes.

While this information might not necessarily be false, you might be getting only part of the picture. Remember, there's a monetary incentive behind every commercial site in providing you with information, whether it is for good public relations or to sell you a product outright. Sites using this domain name are schools ranging from kindergarten to higher education. If you take a look at your school's URL you'll notice that it ends with the domain.

Information from sites within this domain must be examined very carefully. If it is from a department or research center at a educational institution, it can generally be taken as credible.

However, students' personal Web sites are not usually monitored by the school even though they are on the school's server and use the. If you come across a site with this domain, then you're viewing a federal government site. All branches of the United States federal government use this domain. Information such as Census statistics, Congressional hearings, and Supreme Court rulings would be included in sites with this domain. The information is considered to be from a credible source.

Generally, the information in these types of sites is credible and unbiased, but there are examples of organizations that strongly advocate specific points of view over others, such as the National Right to Life Committee and Planned Parenthood.

When evaluating a web site, check these basic points:. The following PDFs provide more tools for evaluating websites. Use the checklist to help in critically analyzing a questionable website or blog. It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older. This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.

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