Evaluating Information on the InternetGetting the Best from the Web
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EMILYHART
JOSEPHCHMURA JENNIFER
NACE MICHAELHUNTER
ALWAYS know where you are on the Web --
The url is your guidepost
New Top Level Domains (ICANN 1/11/12) .com domains almost exhausted for new
website names “Someone got there first” New businesses must pay domain brokers
for an address or register a new one with un-natural, insignificant words
Now possible to purchase a unique TLD (.mycompany or .ourtrademark or .ourbrand)
Fee - $185,000 with waiting period of 2 years.
Domain Registration
Currently unrestricted: .com .info .net .org
Currently require proof of eligibility .edu .coop .mil .gov .int .museum .xxx .aero .asia
DIAL: Evaluating Sites
Document:Verify factual accuracy
Can it be corroborated by you or others?
Is there scholarly support for assertions?Check the Format and Tone
Is it well-organized and easily navigated?
Is there an overt (or covert) bias, advocacy purpose or other hidden
agenda?
DIAL: Evaluating SitesCaveat lector Be especially careful if you find yourself
agreeing with the point of view of the author(s). You may not notice information that is IncompleteOne sidedPoorly researchedUndocumented
DIAL: Evaluating Sites
Institution or Sponsor:What is the reputation of the sponsor(s) or affiliated organization(s)?Check their identity if you have a question about the site
Use Whois for domain ownershipinformation:
http://www.internic.net/ orhttp://www.networksolutions.com/whois
DIAL: Evaluating Sites
Author(s):Check for credentials and accessibility (e-mail or other contact information)Navigate until you find this information; if you don’t, don’t use the document
DIAL: Evaluating Sites
Linkage or Affiliations:Overt: Outgoing links and/or advertisements found on the pageCovert: Incoming links
(Use Google or Yahoo and simply type link: followed by the URL in the searchbox. You will be given a list of all incoming links and much more about the site)What other sites exist by the same author(s) or sponsoring organization(s)?
(You many need Whois for this)
Wikipedia:Authorship
No requirements Most content contributed by a core of
about 1,000 “regular, registered users” IP addresses of anonymous editors are
recorded in the page history About ¼ of articles have only one author Articles average 2.7 authors each
Editorial Control (?)
Volunteer “administrators” Monitor changes in a section or topic area Arbitrate conflicts i.e. “edit wars” and decide
when to “protect” an article from further revision
Peer Review Status - granted by a larger number of reviewers as a sign of higher quality
Featured Content Status (“The Best of W.”) -peer reviewed sites selected for this honor by further review and labeled with a Star
Featured Portals – Large subject metasites of high quality
Web Topography:Layers of the web and what you can get from each…
Curated web Human, expert-created subject
directories Infomine.ucr.edu ipl2.org Content well-vetted and locked
Human, crowdsourced subject sites Wikipedia, Quora Content open (crowdsourced)
Human/crawler hybrids DuckDuckGo ddg.gg
Web Topography:Layers of the web and what you can get from each…
General Web results General search engines – algo-based
Google, Bing Content closed (static web pages) Limited search options; influenced by social
web Social Web
Blogs, Twitter, Facebook Content open and closed (crowdsourced) Topsy.com –social web metaengine
The Shape of Today’s Social Web
Public responses/attitudes/primary sources Breaking news, local to worldwide Trending topics and people Latest product reviews Companies and competition
Security, technology topics (latest virus, etc.) Locate individuals and their networks
Who they follow, who follows them People interested in a topic/hobby
Monitor collaborations
The very latest in…….
Social Networks in the Egyptian Revolution
1/25/11-2/11/11Enabling protesters to become citizen
journalists
Facebook, TwitterThe Heartbeat of the Egyptian Revolution in 2011 From January 10 to February 10: Twitter
Over 93 million revolution-related tweets within Egypt and between Egypt and other countries
Facebook 2313 revolution-related pages and events
created 461,000 posts by 9,815 users 216 Egyptian “cyber-revolutionary” FB
groups formed
Mining Today’s Social Web:The trust factors People you don’t know
Wikipedia Human-created databases, directories
“I need a few good sites on solar energy”
Mahalo, Ipl2.org Video Sharing and Q&A Services “How do I repair my garage door
opener?” YouTube, Yahoo Answers, Answers.com,
Mahalo Answers
Mining Today’s Social Web:The trust factors
People you follow Twitter-human created Tweets“What’s the buzz on Beyonce?”
People you know Post a question to friends and family“What type of Mac should I buy?” Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Bing (login
via Facebook)
SOCIAL SEARCH TOOLS
Topsy – www.topsy.comReal-time search of Twitter and Google+
Unlike other real time se’s, ranking is based on a deep archive of social media
Trending metrics used in ranking What’s viral right now?
Experts Search locates authoritative Twitter users on topics of your choice
Advanced search filters Site/domain Twitter user Language (10) Date, time posted
Twittermining Tools
Twitter.com Requires a (free) account Only the latest 2 weeks available Searchable by hashtag (#)
Author-designated keyword or significant term or phrase
#rochester #jobs #marketing
Facebook’s Graph SearchSearch using the knowledge of your friends Personalized search results based on
your circle of FB friends and public posts
“A collection of entities and their relationships on Facebook” (FB Graph Search engineering team)
Designed for full natural language queries
Made public 7/15/13 Must access via your FB account