It is important to realise that not all the information on the Web is what it might seem. The following web sites will help you find out more about how to check that the information you are viewing is correct and un-biassed.

You can see a powerpoint tutorial on Internet literacy here

Tutorial

This web site will help you find out more about evaluating information on the web

http://www.quick.org.uk/index2.htm

Checking back-links

Often you can find clues about what kind of site you are looking at by finding out what other sites link to it. Go to altavista and put in a search which starts with link: followed by the domain name of the site you want to trace

eg to see what sites link to Kelso High School enter the search:

link:www.kelso.scotborders.sch.uk

http://www.altavista.com/

Paying for search terms

Search engines will promote a site on ther search pages if you pay them. Go to Overture and do a search on keyword. Once your search is complete, look for Max Bids in the top right corner.

Finding out who owns a domain

Use this link to find out who ownas a domain. Try looking up the kelsohighschool.net domain

www.easywhois.com

One way to tell if a site is genuine

Looking at the domain name from a web address:

This site looks quite convincing at first and has even fooled historians:

http://www.bigredhair.com/robots/index.html

If you look at http://www.bigredhair.com however you can soon tell whether it is genuine or not

Valid or Invalid?

Look at these sites and see if you can tell which ones contain genuine information.

http://www.dhmo.org/

http://www.preparingforemergencies.gov.uk/

http://www.preparingforemergencies.co.uk/

http://www.carlukeguide.co.uk/

http://improbable.com/airchives/classical/cat/cat.html

http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus.html

http://home.inreach.com/kumbach/velcro.html

http://www.allaboutexplorers.com/

http://www.whirledbank.org/

http://www.worldbank.org/