Evaluating Internet Resources 

Not all information on the Internet is created equal; therefore, evaluating the quality of information found on the Internet is very important. Web pages are created by institutions, organizations, businesses, governmental agencies, and individuals for a wide variety of purposes. You will find pages that contain high quality information, but you will also find pages that contain inaccuracies or bias.

Functionally, pages can be grouped into categories such as advocacy, business/marketing, informational, news and personal. This handout defines various types of web pages you may see, provides tips for identifying the type of page you areviewing based on the URL (uniform resource locator), and gives a checklist of questions you might consider in order to determine the quality and context of information provided on a web page. It is intended to help you become a more discriminating consumer of electronic information.