The URL ("Uniform Resource Locator," or Web address) and information about the author or creators of a Web site are critical in determining site quality. Information created anonymously and posted on the Web should not be used in academic research.

Keep in mind the following general rules for evaluating the URL:

The site "domain" type. This was once a major standard for deciding Web quality — on what type of server is the information stored? A government server, a university server, a nonprofit server, etc. The 3-letter domains most often used are:

• .gov for United States government offices
• .mil for the United States military
• .edu for educational institutions worldwide
• .org for nonprofit organizations. It used to be that only non-profit organizations could use this domain, but this is no longer the case. Anyone can buy an .org domain. An unfortunate example of this is the "Martin Luther King Jr. - A True Historical Examination" Web site, a hate site sponsored by racists.
• .com and .biz are for commercial purposes.

The site publisher. The name at the beginning of a URL often indicates the organization that created the site and hosts the Web site. The long string of alpha and numeric characters separated by slashes indicate the file structure of the document you want on the server. URLs can be very lengthy and complicated, and are "case-sensitive" — you must enter the URL as specified with UPPERCASE or lowercase letters.

Personal Web sites. Companies like AOL or GeoCities will sell Web server space to anyone. Personal sites are considered the least reliable of all sites on the Internet. Examples of personal sites include "Weblogs," or "blogs."

Site creator. Look for a link ("Contact Us," "About Us") to find out more information about the person or organization responsible for the site. If such a page also contains a physical address and telephone number, so much the better.

Author credentials. Do the same evaluation process on a Web author as you would for a book or article author. Is the person an expert in the field, and how do you know? Does s/he have the training and credentials to write about the subject?

Evaluate the Web site using the URL, the host or creator, and author credentials. Can you detect any bias?