Since every man and his dog can publish anything on websites, we may question the accuracy of that content. Following the net.Tutor tutorial on Evaluating Web Sites, there are 6 points to consider in order to infer a reliable source.

1. Purpose

Is it an advocacy, commercial, or reference site?

2. Author

Check that both the author and publisher have credibility on the topic. See the net.TUTOR: Using Online Resources to Check Authority or perhaps try the following Firefox add-on.

Who Is This Person? by Ted Rheingold
Highlight any name on a web page and see matching information from Wink, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Facebook, Google News, Technorati, Yahoo Person Search, Spock, WikiYou, ZoomInfo, IMDB, MySpace and more…

3. Content Bias / Balance

In order to understand the need for this check, I’ll re-iterate the quote here.

Most of us have biases, and we can easily fool ourselves if we don’t make a conscious effort to keep our minds open to new information. Psychologists have shown over and over again that humans naturally tend to accept any information that supports what they already believe, even if the information isn’t very reliable. And humans also naturally tend to reject information that conflicts with those beliefs, even if the information is solid. These predilections are powerful. Unless we make an active effort to listen to all sides we can become trapped into believing something that isn’t so, and won’t even know it.
A Process for Avoiding Deception, FactCheckED.org

Good website sources on controversial topics should present a balance of both pro and con viewpoints, together with arguments supported and documented.

4. Coverage

To cross-check similar sites, try the Google related search, for example related:meyerweb.com

5. Timeliness

For researching time-sensitive topics, consider the age of, and how up-to-date any sources are.

6. Recognition

Just like the related search, Google provides a link search to find other sites linking to the source in question. For instance, link:meyerweb.com. Public bookmarking sites, such as del.icio.us, can indicate popularity with related tags. Technorati authority defines the number of blogs linking to a website in the last six months. For very new articles there may not yet be any citations, but try Google Scholar. These are just some measures of recognising that the source site provides useful information.

So now we know several ways to investigate and judge whether a website is an informative and worthwhile source. Let’s do it!

Evaluation of a source slightly relevant to the NET11 unit

• URL http://meyerweb.com/eric/articles/webrev/200001.html “Print Different”
• Author Eric A. Meyer
• This blog posting is a tutorial on implementing a CSS design for the print medium. The information presented is most helpful for web designers. The site is largely authored by an individual, an advocate for promoting the use of CSS standards. I doubt that an opposing viewpoint exists, but no alternatives to CSS are mentioned in this article.

  As the author of several books on the topic, naturally he does have a vested interest in selling them. However the article above was taken from his personal site, not the separate commercial one. He is an internationally recognized expert on the subjects of HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). … Eric coordinated the authoring and creation of the W3C’s CSS Test Suite and has recently been acting as List Chaperone of the highly active css-discuss mailing list. Certainly a reputable author and publisher on the subject.

  The article is somewhat biased and barely mentions the cons. The pro arguments are detailed, but as it is a tutorial rather than a controversial topic, it is supported by many examples. In terms of coverage, there are, according to the Google related:meyerweb.com search, less than 30 other websites similar to meyerweb.com, some of which Eric plays a role in!

  Back in January 2000, the material was originally written as a professional article on http://www.webreview.com. No information has been added recently, the content may be up-to-date but the external links no longer connect - probably due to the original site’s archiving scope. Hence, as stated, one of the reasons Eric has archived these articles himself. He does promise a return to the subject once browsers increase support for more media and specific styles.

  As for recognition, delicious reveals 18 public bookmarks of the site, Google found about 2,170 sites linking to meyerweb.com, and Technorati uncovered 3,225 blog reactions.

  As one might expect in a tutorial article, it was written with a biased viewpoint. Overall though, the distinguished author has produced an excellent tutorial, supported by examples and current best practices, with ample coverage of the topic for my needs.

Finally, for my own future use, the full evaluation is overkill. The quick skim of a basic annotation will suffice to jog my memory. For external users however, an analytical evaluation is superior as it includes thorough author and content cross-checking.