"Truth: That Which Is Negated By The Small Print"

The above quote from Gerald Barzan is particularly appropriate when evaluating the credibility of websites. It’s so easy to plug a few key words into a search engine, get a list of websites in return, look at the first few on the list and feel we’ve got the answer we were looking for. Too often critical thinking skills are suspended in this situation and we take for granted that the websites and subsequent information from them is credible. This is not so much of an issue when you are doing casual internet searching for personal curiosity or informal fact finding but if you are going to use the information you find for developing business strategy or making vital decisions you need to make sure you take the time to investigate the integrity of the information and the source it came from. The following are some questions to ask yourself in these situations.

How did you find out about the website? Was it from a reliable source (word of mouth, print or online) or from a quick inquiry on a search engine? Try and confirm with at least one other source that this is a reputable site. Do a reverse link look up to see who links to the site. In Google, the syntax is “link:website url”. Are those websites from reputable sources?

Who put the website up? Look to see if there is full contact information readily available. Do a key word search on the organization or author’s name and see what else they’re involved in, what’s been said about them, and if it’s an individual what else they’ve written or what organizations they belong to.

How is the knowledge or expertise shown on the website? Is the writing clear and logical? Are there links to supporting evidence and are references cited? Are limitations clearly identified? Contact the author or company and follow up with any questions or concerns you have.

Is there evidence of bias? Is there an overriding political or ideological agenda that affects the website’s credibility? Is the agenda disguised in any way or misleading?

How current is the website? Look to see if there is a date on the website and determine whether this is the date of the original source material, the date the site was created or the date it was most recently updated.

By asking yourself these questions you’ll start exercising your critical thinking skills, will end up using better quality information and thus will make more informed decisions. Remember, the internet is only a tool and you have to know how to handle it properly for it to yield it’s maximum benefit. Otherwise the tool could end up doing more damage than good.