Examination and Cross-Examination: Getting the Facts: Evaluating Internet Resources

Wikipedia describes itself as "the free encyclopedia anyone can edit."  Read Wikipedia's ever-growing list of disclaimers--"Wikipedia Makes No Guarantee of Validity."  It's not a good idea to rely on the information you find here--you can use it to start your research, but never cite or quote from it in a research paper.

Factors to look for in evaluating websites include

• Authority
  • Who is the author? Do they have a hidden agenda?
• Objectivity
  • Does the website purport to be objective? Advocacy group websites can be a valuable source of information, but you should question the information if they hide who they really are.
• Timeliness
  • What is the date of publication? When was it last updated?
• ​Documentation
  • Do they cite reliable sources?
• Privacy
  • If you have to sign up for a free account, what do they do with your information?

• Google and Yahoo are estimated to cover only 3% to 34% of documents available on the Internet
• Much Internet exists as the "Invisible Web", hidden from search engines for a number of reasons:
  • Site requires registration
  • Site is fee-based or licensed
  • Site is behind a firewall or on an intranet
  • Site is dynamically generated