So, how do you evaluate a web page? Well, one thing you should always pay attention to is what type of site a web page comes from.
When the Internet was first designed, sites were grouped together by categories into six "domains". In November of 2000, seven new domains were added, but they haven't been used much.
The six original domains are listed below. Move your mouse over the domains to see an example of each one.
.com commercial www.microsoft.com .edu educational www.uncg.edu .gov government www.house.gov .mil military www.army.mil .net network www.earthlink.net .org organization www.greenpeace.orgOf these six, the most commonly encountered domains are .com, .org and .edu.
If the domain is commercial, then the primary purpose of the website is mostly likely to sell a product or service, and the information presented there will likely be colored by that fact.
If the domain is .org, then you will want to determine the organization's agenda and ask yourself whether that agenda might have an effect on the information presented on the website.
Even if the website is in a .edu domain, you should be as critical as possible about the information you find there.
To find the domain name of a website, look at the very first part of the address. For example, consider this address:
http://library.uncg.edu/depts/ref/tutorial
The domain name is library.uncg.edu, and the type of domain is .edu, or educational.
