Criteria for evaluating Information on The Internet: Personal Perspective

Abstract

Internet is a valuable information resource, but it also contains lot of information, which is incomplete, out-of-date, or inaccurate. Author considers the importance of standards and contents of sites on the World Wide Web, specifically in Indian context, a field where scope, coverage and validity of information is vital for both academic and research community. An attempt has been made to identify scope and policy for evaluating Internet resources. The criteria, which are to be taken into consideration while evaluating the Internet resources, including authority, accessibility, arrangement, currency, response time, stability, target audience, accuracy, coverage, completeness and style are discussed. An effort has been made to evaluate and catalog few Newsletters and Databases, which are freely available on the Web. The evaluation of the quality of information available on the Internet could require a large amount of human effort.