What is the difference between a reliable website and one unreliable? - To find reliable information on the Internet, it is crucial to determine the credibility of Web sites you are surfing. A reliable website is one that contains the facts, accurate, objective and current information. Even if a website appears reliable at first glance, it is important to develop a critical eye and virtually anyone can create a website on any topic you want.
Author's credentials
Look who wrote the
website content and what qualifications you have in this field of knowledge. If you qualify, your credentials will be mentioned on the site anywhere. It is also important to consider what organization or institution the author is associated. If a link and / or published information contact the organization or institution, the website is more likely to be reliable. Finally, you should look to see where else the author has published. For example, if you have written articles for academic and professional journals on the subject of which he has written in his website, usually you can be confident that the site is a reliable source web.
Research author
Looking to see what research was done to write the content of the website. If a list of "works cited" or "references" is present, you know that the author did his research. You should also consider some of the links on this list to see if other reliable sources are reporting the same information. If the author does not refer to the place where he got his information and if you are not an expert in your field, the site web is unreliable.
Date Item
Look when it was written the article in the site web, or when the last update of the content of the website was done. If a date does not appear anywhere but the article refers to old news as if it were a current or contains many dead links, chances are the site has not been updated for a while. It is important to determine the date, because even if the information was reliable in a given time, new research may have become obsolete information.
Exchange website
Search educational sites (those ending in "edu") or government websites (those ending in "gov"), as it is more likely that the information provided on these sites is reliable. Of course, you still need to investigate who wrote the content. For example, a student may have written an article on a topic you know very little published server through their school. Other websites, such as those made by individuals, businesses and organizations, commonly ending in "com", "org" or ".net". Many of these sites have reliable information, but also many others. Beware of business websites, as they often contain biased information to encourage you to buy their products. Also, many people create websites as a hobby and may not have much knowledge on the issues about which they are writing.
