Finding a legitimate source on the Web isn't always easy.
Web address endings such as .gov and .edu were designed to make the process more user-friendly.
At least that's the idea behind them.
Domain names are categorized. Accredited post secondary institutions have an .edu Web address, but not all are accredited.
Student Renee Pehr said when she was looking at colleges, she didn't think the Web address meant anything except that the site belonged to an educational institution.
"I think it should be regulated," she said. "It's pretty bad if you can just get a .edu Web site for fun. That could really mislead people."
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Three years ago, the U.S. Department of Commerce handed over management of the .edu domain name to Educause, a higher-education technology consortium, which is now responsible for administering the .edu name.
However, under the agreement that transferred the domain management responsibilities from a company called Network Solutions to Educause, any Web site that received the .edu ending prior to Educause's takeover was allowed to keep the name, even if it didn't meet new eligibility standards.
Under Educause's watch, only post-secondary institutions are allowed to have the .edu address. The organizations must be institutionally accredited by an agency on the U.S. Department of Education's list of nationally recognized accrediting agencies.
Peter DeBlois, director of communication and publishing for Educause, said his company is aware there are institutions with the domain name that don't meet the criteria, but it would be a violation of the agreement to take the name away.
"Since Educause took over the .edu domain administration in October of 2001, we have not awarded the domain name to any institution that does not meet eligibility criteria," he said.
DeBlois said there are 7,497 sites are registered with the .edu domain name. He said Educause does not keep track of how many of those institutions are unaccredited by Department of Education standards.
"There really is no expectation that all .edu sites are accredited," he said. "Every .com site is not necessarily a member of good standing of the Better Business Bureau."
Student Paul Nazelrod said he assumed the .edu ending identified anything that was educational.
"I've never really even thought about it," he said. "I didn't know that it had to be accredited. I just thought it was anything that was educational or that offered an education."
Student Vanessa Kidd said she would be wary of a college that didn't have the ending.
"I've never looked at a college that doesn't have .edu at the end," she said. "It would make me wonder about the college in general if that wasn't part of the address."
