SECTION 4: EVALUATING WEB SITES

REGISTRATION REQUIRED, TEASERS, AND LIMITED FREE-OF-CHARGE ACCESS

Let's look at an example:

Below is the NewRx.net (http://www.newsrx.net/) site again. Remember that NewsRx collects and prints news stories about drugs and drug therapies. We already know from the Privacy and Confidentiality section of this tutorial that NewsRx has a confidentiality statement.

Let's take a look. You can click on the link above to see a live version of the site, or follow along with our screen captures below:

Notice below that you can read old news stories for free, but registration is required:

When we start to register, notice that the screen below says "free trial". Does that mean that we'll have to pay at some point in the future? For how long is it "free"? Should we register or not?

Now, let's take a look at "Today's Headlines". Notice on the screen below that the first news story is about AIDS drugs. This article might be interesting:

Part of the news story is displayed below, but we want to read the entire story. Let's click on the link to read the rest of it:

When we click on the link to read the story, we discover that we'll have to subscribe to the entire journal just to read this article:

This is what we refer to as a "teaser". At first glance, it appears the the news story is free, but when we get closer, we realize that we'll have to pay. There is nothing wrong with having to pay for information, but it can be frustrating when we think that the information we want is going to be available free-of-charge.

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