AICT 1 15F‎ > ‎

What makes a source believable?

Doing research you're going to encounter a lot of real websites, and some that may be less promising. How do you tell them apart?

Consider some of the following points:
  • Use your common sense. Does the site make a claim that is just too strange to be true? If that's the case, it's probably not true. For example, does the site Pickles Will Kill You makes sense?
  • Who is the author? What can you find out about him, or her, or the organization?
    • If you Google the author, what do you find out about him or her if anything?
  • Are there links to outside sites that might verify the information you're reading?
  • Does the URL of the site match the organization? For example, if you're supposedly at a Scotia Bank site, is the URL or is it something unrelated?
  • Does the layout look polished? If a website looks "mickey mouse" that's often a good clue that it's not legitimate.
  • For legal reasons, fake sites often provide a small, hard to find disclaimer that actually tells you not to believe the site. Does the site you're looking at have one?
  • Strictly information websites don't usually have ads. Are there ads on a site that's not likely to have them? This is usually a pretty obvious clue.
  • When was the site created or updated? Is this something current or has it been allowed to fall into disrepair? Sites that are not maintained are often sites that are suspect.
  1. Jackalope Conspiracy
  2. All About Explorers
  3. PigeonRank
  4. Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division
  5. Haggis Hunt
  6. Feline Reactions to Bearded Men
  7. California's Velcro Crop Under Challenge
  8. West Jet introduces sleeper cabins
  9. Google Gulp
  10. Chrome Multi Task Mode
  11. YouTube turns 100!
  12. McWhortle
  13. Ninja Burger
  14. Time Travel Fund
  15. Lasik at home
  16. MentalPlex


Take a look at the the sites above and give one different reason as to why each site is not believable. Type them up, print them off and hand them in by the end of the class.