Carmel High School Media Department

URL Suffix List

You can use the end, or suffix, of a domain name to help you judge the validity of the information and identify the potential bias of a website. Remember, this strategy is only a guideline. People may purchase domains that do not necessarily reflect their actual purpose.

.com = Commercial Site (commercial sites may vary in their credibility)
.gov = a U.S. government site
.org = an orginization, often a nonprofit site
.edu = a school or university site in the United States (Determines whether the school source is K-12 or university and whether the page was written by a student or a scholar.)
.ac = an educational institution, like .edu
.mil = a U.S. military site
.net = a networked service provider, an Internet administrative site
.museum = a museum
.name = an individual Internet user
.biz = a business
.info = a site with general information
.pro = a site representing a professional
.coop = a cooperative
.store = a retail business
.aero = a site from the aviation community
.int = an international institution
~ = a personal page

Another way to establish the credibility of a site is to perform a Link Check. Use a search engine such engine like AltaVista or Google to see which other sites have chosen to link to the site you are evaluating. Enter:link:http://siteaddress.