The Internet: A tangled web of lies and deceit.
The Internet - one of the greatest resources for information in our lifetimes. With a few clicks you can find information on pretty much anything you like. The mighty search engines index billions of web pages. Running a search query on google “How to grow tomatoes” returns about 1,270,000 results. Wow - all that information from the touch of a button. Now with tomatoes nobody really cares whether the information is fact or fiction, but what about more serious subject matter.
There are three categories that a webpage can fall into.
- Fact: The author knows what they are talking about, the information is correct and can be trusted.
- Misinformation: The author believes what they are telling you is correct but in reality their work is flawed.
- Lies: The author has deliberately set out to deceive the reader.
The credibility of a web page can never be guaranteed, in fact there is no real science to validating a page. To check whether a web page is a valuable source the reader will need to look at the information available and make that decision themselves.
- Firstly look at the URL, certain domain extensions can probably be trusted more than others (.gov, .edu, .ac.uk). A page on http://www.plymouth.ac.uk is more likely to be credible than a personal geocities homepage. Generally government and educational sources are more reliable than any blog or opinion on a personal webpage.
- Next look at who the author is - are they related to any organisations or groups that deal with the subject of the article? An article on SEO from a google employee has ten times the worth of an article from someone who with no real research behind their writings.
- If the webpage lists any facts or information from third parties check for citations. My opinion that Google is the most used search engine means nothing without the facts and figures to back that up.
- If there are alternative facts or theories does the author address these. This is especially valuable when someone explains why they have chosen one interpretation over another and often lets you make your own decision.
- Does the style of writing on the webpage reflect the articles written. An article written by a top scientist but littered with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors does not inspire confidence.
- Is there a date stating how old the information is? One of the biggest advantages of using the internet over other written media is that it can be updated instantly. If the resource your are using is not kept up to date then look for another.
There is a lot of useful information on the internet but you must remember not to take everything at face value. Using the above simple steps should help you to choose better resources and make the best use of the amazing amount of information available on the internet.
 Dave