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BIO281 Microbiology: Websites

Resources for Professor Serres Microbiology Assignments

Evaluating Web Sites

Magnifying glass

Things to think about when choosing a web site:

  • Accuracy-are there any obvious errors?  Are references provided so you can check the info?
  • Affiliation-is the page associated with a known and reliable publication or organization?  
  • Audience-for whom is the page designed?
  • Authority-who wrote the web page, what are their qualifications?
  • Currency-when was the page last updated?
  • Objectivity-is there an obvious bias?
  • Purpose-Commercial? Entertainment? Informative? Persuasive? Promtional? 

Recommended Websites

medlineplus.gov A powerful directory of medical information on the web

http://www.cdc.gov  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

WHO - World Health Organization

Google 101

Google

  • Search within a specific website (site:): Google allows you to specify that your search results must come from a given website. You can also specify a whole class of sites, for example [site:.gov ] will return results only from a .gov domain.
  • Phrase search (""): By putting double quotes around a set of words, you are telling Google to search those exact words in that exact order without any change
  • Fill in the blanks (*): Use an asterisk (*) as a placeholder for any unknown or "wildcard" terms.  

Want more ideas?  Read Google's own help pages.