Date: Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Internet source reliablity
Whether it’s for work, education or personal enjoyment, the Internet plays a huge part in informing our daily lives, but compared to factual literature from a local library, do we have the right to say that content on the Internet is guaranteed accurate, all the time?
Google accounts for nearly 50%1 of home and work Internet searches in the US. Web searchers are using its formidable force to find more information on anything and everything.
In early 2002, a new trend for Internet users was to try ‘Google-Whacking’, a trend that sees users trying to find a search query that returned only one, unique result. Although seen as a pointless task, this bizarre pastime proved that Google had results and information on nearly every subject and even today sites are difficult to find the ‘Google-Whacking’ way!
But does every website in a subject search provide accurate and reliable information?
Searching the Internet to achieve reliable sources
Google is probably the first major starting point in finding a piece of information. Did you find this article through a direct link, or did you search Google?
While studying on an Internet-based course at University, I soon noticed that whenever something needed researching or students needed support with work, the Internet and Google were quickly summoned to provide the answer. As for my work, I too used this method.
Even later in life, when working in a website design company, I noticed that if anyone in the team needed information that was new and unknown, Google was subject to search queries.
I have also observed that over the years, dictionaries and thesauruses have become almost obsolete in the student bag and office shelving. Why? The Internet now has resources such as online dictionaries and calendars. Google and other search engines now offer online office suites, with built-in dictionaries and thesauruses.
Search engines also correct spellings when using the search facility, another aid used by most to spell a word correctly.
Why is it most people do this? It’s fast, easy and free.
These ‘bad habits’ are forever being used and more and more people are taking this simple solution to hand in every day circumstances.
If you perform a search on the Internet though, how reliable are the websites that are returned?
Some websites that you view after searching the Internet are clearly favourites for users. The BBC website for instance is a digital domain of high quality and extremely reliable information.
However, viewing www.some-unknown-name.co.uk may seem okay, especially if the website looks professional, but does it offer the same reliability as the BBC? It is most likely going to be accurate, but that does not mean every site will be.
Guide to searching for resources – online and offline
To enhance your information and data search, here are some simple tips and pieces of advice that can guide you to reliable and accurate resources.
- Try using books – it’s obvious, but try your local library. Once libraries were the main source of information for communities and they remain free to access.
- Names – the domain name of a website can change an opinion of its content. If you trust a name or brand, use it. Also, try using sources like news websites, such as BBC, CNN etc.
- Look around – maybe two sites offer similar information. Compare and analyse both results to see if the information corroborates. If not, try another.
- Authors – if an author has written a good piece of work, search for more resources by that author. He or she may be featured on a high calibre website, which makes better for accuracy.
- Common sense – most of all, use your common sense. If a source looks inaccurate, it probably is. If it sounds incorrect, it probably is. Search multiple sites and compare results.
http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2156451
(25 Sep 06)
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