Credibility of Internet Material

The internet is a diverse, open area of creativity. It is a hive of learning where anyone can post, read and learn from any number of websites. Learning how to navigate the world wide web, however, can be tricky.

Through the article, Criteria to Evaluate the Credibility of WWW Resources, located here, I learned more about three areas. I learned more about determining the credibility of the website, the difference between the different types of web pages and how to break down a URL.

Determining the credibility of the website can be determined usually by the author or administrator. If the author is a reputable author who has authority on the subject, generally you can trust the website. Another great test is to see if the author has been published in a peer-reviewed setting as well.

The difference between the different kinds of web pages never really struck me before. Obviously I understood the difference between a .com address and a .gov address, but it wasn’t until I read this article that I really started to understand what the differences really mean. For example, through this article, I learned the difference between a professional site and a commercial site.

I also learned how to break down a URL. With a given URL, it can be broken down starting at the beginning. Start with the website name, then look at the .com portion to see what kind of site the website is coming from, then look through the rest of the URL similarly.