Monday, July 19, 2010

Analyzing Websites

Image representing Bruce Clay as depicted in C...Image via CrunchBase

Analyzing Websites


A researcher using search engines to scour the internet for information require that it be credible, accurate, and reliable -- other words, it must be "trustworthy". How do you determine if the web site(s) information is trustworthy?

In the search engine world, cheating is known as spam. Spam involves deliberately building webpages that try to trick a search engine into offering inappropriate, redundant, or poor-quality search results. It's not only unethical, but can also get a researcher in trouble.[1]

A researcher can evaluate a web search or a web site by asking some general questions that can become more progressively elaborate. There is no standardized "checklist" for determining whether or not a web site is trustworthy because the checklist needs to be created according to a researcher's technical knowledge (basic to advance). Therefore, I created a short intermediate checklist that includes the following out-of-the-gate items:

Does the content appear reliable?
  • What information does the web site provide? 
  • Are sources documented or cited?  
  • Are there links to more information?
Are there comments about the web site? 
  • Does the web site have related links?
What's in the URL? 
  • Domain name - this is the name of one or more Internet Protocol (IP) addresses used to identify the location of websites and its pages. For example, the URL of www.google.com has the domain name of "google".[2]
  • Directory name - is the name of a folder in which holds a specific category of data for a website. For example, the URL of www.amazon.com/products that has the directory name of products which will hold information relating to amazon products such as books, articles, etc.[3]
  • Sub-directory name - is the name of a folder within a Directory that is used to break-down a category into its parts. For example, the URL www.amazon.com/products/books has the sub-directory name of books.[4]
  • File - is the name of the file in which is holding the desired information. For example, the URL www.amazon.com/products/books/URL_defined.htm has the file name of URL_defined.html that is responsible for holding the information onto a Hypertext Markup Langauge (HTML) file.
What is the purpose of the website?
  • Is the information subjective or objective?
  • Is it a blog, RSS feed, or a Wiki web page?
Sources for Evaluating a Website - the below sources are commonly used for analyzing a website and determining whether or not its information is trustworthy. This is an important step used to  validate internet information that will be used for a research project.
  • Berkeley University -- Website Evaluation Checklist
http://web.archive.org/web/20100718101756/http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/evaluation_checklist_2008_spring.pdf

This checklist is a good resource for the beginner learning how and what to think about when analyzing a website(s).
  • Alexa, The Web Information Company (an Amazon company)
http://www.alexa.com/ 

This website offers a free service that analyzes and assesses the demand for a particular website(s). The Alexa product provides valuable tools and provides a report on a websites ranking, traffic stats, audience types, contact information, reviews, related links, click-streams and back-links; I like to the Way-Back Machine that shows a time-line of when the website originated and revision dates.
  • Copyscape Plagiarism Checker
http://www.copyscape.com/

This website offers free and premium services used to check websites that are violating the rules of plagiarism.
 

[1 ] Bruce Clay, "What the Engines Think is Spam," Search Engine Optimization,
 http://www.bruceclay.com/emergingstandards.htm.
[2] Webopedia
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/domain_name.html
[3] Id
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/d/directory.html
[4] Id
[5] Webopedia
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/f/file.html
Enhanced by Zemanta