In the original White Paper, several credibility indicators were discussed:  authorship, purpose, currency, domain type, and site design.  Since the creation of the 1999 White Papers, many organizations have conducted studies and created Web sites committed to educating the public about Web credibility issues.   For example, in 2001 Consumers Union, a non-profit publisher of “Consumer Reports”, created a Web site entitled Consumer WebWatch.  This site, devoted to focusing on credibility issues, has highlighted several goals:

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Provide public education on what makes a Web site credible or not credible

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Present annual awards recognizing the most and the least credible sites on the Web

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Develop effective standards and best practices for credible information and information disclosure on the Web, and work with other organizations to promote them and encourage Web publishers to adopt them

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Educate consumers about how to evaluate the information practices of Web sites, and ensure the information they obtain is reliable and trustworthy (“Web Credibility Project Planned”, 2002)

Consumer Web Watch has also suggested several of their own guidelines to assist all types of Web sites improve the credibility of their information.  The following indicators are: 

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Identity:  Sites should clearly disclose ownership, purpose, and mission

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Advertising and sponsorships:  Sites should clearly distinguish news and information from advertising and e-commerce

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Customer service:  Sites should disclose all fees charged and relevant financial relationships with other sites.

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Corrections:  Sites should be diligent about correcting false or misleading information.

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Privacy:  These policies should be easy to find and understand. (Sullivan, 2002)

In addition to this credibility project conducted by Consumers Union, another project, The Web Credibility Project, has been developed by Stanford University.  This site also has named its project goals:

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Understand what leads people to believe what they find on the Web

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Perform quantitative research on Web credibility

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Collect all public information on Web credibility

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Act as a clearinghouse for this information

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Act as a clearinghouse for this information

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Assist designers in creating credible Web sites (“Web Credibility Project Planned”, 2002)

Like the Consumers Union, The Web Credibility Project has also created indicators to assist in building the credibility of a Web site:

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Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site.

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Show that there's a real organization behind your site.

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Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide.

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Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site.

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Make it easy to contact you.

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Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose).

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Make your site easy to use --and useful.

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Update your site's content often (at least show it's been reviewed recently).

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Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g., ads, offers).

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Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem. (Fogg, 2002).

Many other organizations are conducting studies and/or posting information concerning Web site credibility:

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ONA: Online News Association (http://www.journalists.org/ )

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IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.  (http://www.ieee.org/portal/index.jsp )

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PFIR:  People for Internet Responsibility (http://www.pfir.org/ )

Domain types involve examining the end of the URL.  For example, if the following domain types were found in the URL, you would able to determine where the information came from (Greer, et al, 1999):

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.gov is a U.S. government site ( http://www.whitehouse.gov/ )

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.mil is a U.S. military site (http://www.navy.mil/ )

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.edu is an accredited post-secondary educational institution (http://www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/English/wc/credibility.html )  Although .edu sites are affiliated with an accredited post-secondary educational institution, these sites are not necessarily published by a credible source.  The source publishing the page could be a student at the institution and may not be relaying credible information.

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.com is a commercial, for-profit entity (http://www.jg-tc.com/ )

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.org is a noncommercial, not-for-profit entity (http://www.goldenrescue.org )

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.net is a computer network, particularly an Internet-related network (http://www.rr1.net)

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.int is an international organization (http://www.who.int/)

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.us, .jp, .ru, .ca, .au, etc. are country identifiers (http://www.cmi.k12.il.us)