CLIS529 Links From Textbook
Chapter 6 - Managing and Verifying Online Information

Evaluating Information Sources

Check the owner of the Web site

For US addresses go to: Whois - Verisign  -  Type in the address of the site site you are interested in for name and contact information.

Now that the domain business has been deregulated, also try BetterWhois.

To search US government sites try: WHOIS: .GOV. (This link brings you to the registration page.)

Personalized news

Special Page for NewsTracker  -  one of the best general news services, courtesy of Excite.

Other news services

CNN Email services  -  Use this site to sign up for email alerts for breaking news or daily news updates by email.

MSNBC  -  offers various (free) personal services, including a personalized front page with news that interests you.

My Netscape  -  CNN has launched a website where you can get a personalized news service. My CNN has combined with My Netscape. Sign up for My Netscape to continue receiving this personalized news services from CNN.

BBC Online: Newsline  -  offered by the British Broadcasting Corporation, this news ticker updates headlines across your computer screen all day long.

PowerReporting Alerts   -  provides a list of email alerts.

Keeping up to date

Scout Report  -  This site filters over 130 sources of new internet sites and news stories each week and provides an annotated report offering the best new and newly discovered sites for people in the research and education community.

Also, FYI

Botspot  -  provides a list of all the resources available to help you filter news and information and develop personalized news services.

Information on the Web: Can You Trust It?  -   a website by Melinda McAdams that provides a good checklist with clear explanations of what to do to determine whether you have found credible information.

Informing Ourselves to Death  -   a speech about information overload, given by Neil Postman, who wrote Amusing Ourselves to Death.

Create your own personalized Internet news service from a wide range of US and international sources by creating your own daily newspaper at Crayon.

Do a search at ZDNet  or at CNet  to find out about software to help filter email, organize bookmarks, or assist web searches.

Focus On...

Bookmark organizers

Check&Get  -  a handy bookmark manager and web monitoring program that lets you check your favorite Internet pages and detect whether their content has changed or become unavailable.

Clickmarks.com  -  allows you to upload, organize, and manage your bookmarks online and access them from anywhere in the world.

Columbine Bookmark Merge  -  lets you merge Netscape, Internet Explorer, and Opera bookmark files. Eliminates duplicate bookmarks based on criteria you select. Also, provides flags for recently visited sites and automatic backups.

Compass  -  a sophisticated bookmarking system that you can use easily with Netscape, Internet Explorer, and the Opera browser. You can add, sort, delete, edit, view and search your bookmarks easily. Compass will also verify whether bookmarks are still valid. Excellent program for cleaning up your bookmark files.

Quiklink Explorer Gold Edition  -  helps organize your bookmarks into a tree, with nested folders. You can import existing bookmarks and send them to any of six popular browsers. You can add new bookmarks manually, or grab the URL from Netscape. Each link records the date created, last date visited, URL, an optional description, twelve user-defined fields, and more.

Super Cool Bookmark  -  allows you to collect, organize, browse, and search Internet bookmarks. Supports several users.

SyncIt  -  If you use more than one machine or are on the road a lot, this may be the program for you. It allows you to store your bookmarks on a server and use them from anywhere. SyncIt works with Netscape and Internet Explorer bookmarks. It also checks for dead links and duplicate entries.

Search assistant software

Bullseye   -  delivers instant access to relevant, targeted, and personalized information to your desktop. Access more search engines and databases on the net with a single query.

WebFerretPro  -  a quick, simple search tool that allows you to search up to twenty search engines at once and returns results according to their relevance.

Web Sleuth  -  slightly more expensive. This site allows you to search using several search engines at once and shows you results as they arrive, so you can visit promising sites before all the results are in.