|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Articles on Jobseekers Advice If you would like to submit an article to Jobseekers Advice, then please feel free to contact us. We are always looking for a wide range of articles dealing with career advice, CV advice, interview advice, working abroad, employment issues, education and training and other recruitment or careers related topics. The articles can be the result of professional experience or personal insight - we are looking to offer all points of view.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Surfing the web 4 - Knowing websites by Scott Boyd In Surfing the Web 1 - Browsers, we talked about the different extensions websites can have (.com, .gov, .ac.uk, .co.uk, etc).
In this article, we will look at some of the kinds of websites out there and the issues surrounding them. It is very easy for an individual to create a website that gives the impression of having a multinational company behind it, when there is only one person (which, as with any area of life, people abuse).
In the same respect, the web has given individuals and small businesses a chance to compete with the giants on equal terms.
This brings up one main issue - who to trust?
Well, unfortunately there is no right answer for that, so this article will look at some generic "types" of website and will give a bit of information that you should be able to find on them.
Government Websites These are official websites and always end with .gov (for US .gov, for UK .gov.uk, for France .gov.fr, etc.).
Generally you can trust these websites (well, as far as you can trust your elected officials!). That doesn't necessarily mean that you will be able to find the information you want. Remember, Governments deal with a lot more information than any other organisations out there (perhaps on par with academic institutions) and organising all that information is very hard.
The trend these days is to split the information onto many different websites (instead of having it all on one site). In the UK for example, most MP's have their own website, as do most National Government, Local Government and Council projects and initiatives.
The negative thing I have to say about Government websites is that they won't link to sources that aren't other official or charity websites. This to me, is very narrow minded as there are many websites out there that can offer a lot of value to surfers and it really isn't a policy that is in the best interests of the web. Sites should link to other sites if they offer good information. Plain and simple.
Academic Websites Academic websites (schools, colleges, universities) all use one of two possible extensions:
Like with Government websites, you will find that Academic websites contain useful and accurate information most of the time.
Most are branching out from offering a simply course outline on their websites to also offer research information, articles, resources, tools and a wide range of features.
The Internet, although developed for Military uses, was initially embraced by Academic institutions world wide before it became mass market, and Academic websites remain at the forefront of technological developments.
The one drawback of Academic sites is that a lot of pages are maintained and updated by individuals and quite frequently you will find information that hasn't been updated in years (although the most commonly accessed information on the site tends to be well maintained).
The Corporate Homepage Don't go looking for information!
Large companies (or even small companies who think they are large!) tend to have corporate homepages that are merely copies of their brochure.
I hate these sites!
Most people visit websites looking for information - not to be forced to sit and watch an animation (and wait for it to load) or to stare at a glossy page with zero content.
If you are looking for information about the company itself, then corporate homepages are the place to start, but I would look towards 3rd party or information sites for industry, product or service information.
Things to look for to check that a company is genuine:
Any large company website should have most if not all of this information.
Information Websites This is an information website so I am kinda biased, but I think these kind of sites are the way forward for the web.
Information sites are usually either run by an individual (like this site) or a charity / voluntary project. With individual sites you usually see some advertising or products for sale - charity sites should have a registered charity number and contact details.
The advantages of these kind of sites is that the information is usually unbiased - the people behind them are doing it because they want to and feel strongly about the subject area. The aim of these sites is to provide information, not to make a profit.
The pitfall is that you don't really know how much the people behind the site know about the subject area. But as with any type of website, you should double check any information.
Spam Websites! Spam! The scourge of the Internet!
You all know what junk mail is - the crap you get through your letterbox trying to sell you loans or credit cards or something else you don't need. Spam email is the same thing, but to your email Inbox.
Spam websites are similar - they are churned out quickly (usually from nasty templates!) and more often than not have badly written or copied content (usually very general stuff showing no real knowledge of the subject area).
The main give away is the advertising. I know I've got advertising on this site (on the right hand column of each page), but I don't think it is too excessive or intrusive, and is a necessary evil I'm afraid.
But on Spam Websites, you will see advertising at every opportunity (I saw one recently that used the same ads we do, plus another column of ads on the other side of the page, plus a few more at the bottom, plus one that popped up over the page - the webmaster clearly had no intentions of running a decent information source - it was just for the money).
These bother me. To some extent because they eventually begin to clog up certain markets with crappy websites. But mainly because they offer sub standard information and visitors don't know any better.
Hence, the reason for these articles - you need to be able to distinguish between good sites and bad ones so you can judge the information accordingly. Have you ever been on holiday and had someone try to sell you time share? Those people will say anything (and I mean *anything*) to get you to the offices. It's the same on the web but much easier to get away with, so be careful.
Business Websites If you intend to buy goods online then you should either:
Here are some tips for checking up on a company and buying goods safely online:
Like I said before, it is very easy for an individual to create a website that appears to be an established company, so be sure to check up on the site and business before handing over your details!
Discussion forums Some sites, like this one, have a discussion forum as part of the site. In our case, we provide information covering the basics of the subject area and have the forum there so people can ask specific questions if they need to.
Other sites however are entirely a discussion forum.
I find sites like these particularly useful - established communities for specific subject areas where you can have a chat or get questions answered.
When looking at discussion forums, some things to take into account are:
A good thing to remember (and learn) about discussion forums is the etiquette of the forum you plan to post on. Do they allow URL posting for example? If not, then don't post.
Read the posting guidelines before you post - it doesn't give a good impression if you break the rules with your first post!
And try to contribute back to the forum as well! Speaking as a forum admin, I expect a lot of people to just come here and ask questions and that's it, which is cool, because that's why the site is here. But it's always nice when people come back and participate!
Summary There are tonnes of different types of websites out there and these are only examples of a few of them.
Like with anything in life, you should show common sense and be careful. Even though the bottle says "lemonade", doesn't mean it won't have bleach in it!
Regards Scott Boyd - Webmaster and Founder - Jobseekers Advice
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
