When you use library resources, some additional screening, filtering, and evaluation of the books, journals, indexes and databases you find, print and electronic, takes place. On the world wide web, however, no such standard exists. Anyone with an Internet account can publish anything they want. There are certain questions you should ask of all information whether that information appears in print or on the web. The Cigarette Smokers Information Page.
Commercial enterprises design their pages to come up near the top of search engine lists.
An important part of evaluating a resource is determining the accuracy of the material it contains, which is often difficult with web resources. In some cases, timeliness of information is important, as when students are looking for information on current events. While date of publication can be used as an indicator of currency in a printed document, it may not be that easy to judge the currency of a web document. Sites like CNN, for instance, even have the time of day they were last updated. Heavy borrowing from J. Bert Lott, Classics Dept., with his permission.