Website Domains

Look at the Web address: sites that are commercial have .com in their addresses and might have advertising or something to sell. The .com suffix is also found in news sites (e.g., newspapers, TV networks) and personal pages.

Examining the URL (address) can give clues to the authority of a source. One part of the URL's domain is the host, a three-letter suffix indicating the type of domain:

• .edu - higher education college or university
• .gov - government agency or organization
• .com - commercial organization
• .net - network provider
• .org - non-profit organization
• .int - international organization
• .mil - military

Knowing the origin of a Web page can help evaluate the legitimacy of a page (e.g., if it claims to be a government site, does it have a .gov domain?)

The top domains for accurate information are .gov, .edu, .org, BUT...

In the example http://www.jhu.edu/~jsmith/sports.html , .edu indicates the host is an educational institution, in this case Johns Hopkins University. While this sounds very reputable, the tilde (~) after the type of domain usually indicates a personal web page rather than part of the organization's official website.

The example indicates the site is a file about sports in the folder of someone named jsmith. J. Smith could be an instructor or coach with valuable information to share, or J. Smith might be a student with only unfounded opinions. Extra scrutiny should be applied to such sites.

To find out where a domain is registered you can use Network solutions