Surfing the Web Intelligently
Anyone can publish a web page. A smart surfer can:
- Distinguish quality and authority of web pages.
- Use appropriate web tools to retrieve web pages that fit criteria for quality.
How do I learn to evaulate web pages?
How do I limit my web search to "quality" pages?
- Use a library-based index. Although many library-based indexes are available though the Web, these carefully selected and paid-for resources are not equivalent to the "wild, wild web". They are indexes and links to the published literature, and they continue to provide the best access to research literature in most subject areas.
- Use sources that are no more than one link away from human-evaluated sites, such as:
- Web sites such as Yahoo and About.com are created by humans with some selection criteria. However, many of the linked sites from these guides do not meet standard criteria for authority and content. You must apply your own evaluative criteria in judging these linked sites.
How can I keep track of which commands work in which search engines?
How can I keep up with new and changed search engines? Where can I learn the details about how all the search engines work?
