# Source trust heuristics

Use as a quick check when weighing web search results.

## High-trust (prefer)

- Primary sources — authors, original researchers, official documentation
- Academic / peer-reviewed (doi.org, arxiv.org, NIH)
- Government domains (*.gov, *.gov.au)
- Major established outlets with known editorial standards (Reuters, AP, BBC, Guardian)
- Official vendor docs for the product in question (the vendor's own domain)

## Medium-trust (corroborate before quoting)

- Technology publications (The Verge, Ars Technica, TechCrunch)
- Wikipedia — excellent for overview, always check cited sources for claims
- Stack Overflow / community Q&A — good for code patterns, read comments for caveats
- Reputable industry blogs (Cloudflare blog, Anthropic blog, Vercel blog)

## Low-trust (avoid unless clearly labelled as opinion)

- Content farms / SEO sites (no clear author, generic "top 10" structure)
- Pure social media posts without cited sources
- AI-generated summary sites (often circular citations)
- Marketing / comparison sites with affiliate incentives

## Red flags

- Single-source claim with no corroboration
- Date > 2 years old for fast-moving topic (tech stacks, AI models, pricing)
- Contradicts primary source — trust primary
- Paywall abstract that doesn't let you verify the claim
