<p>This Ranking is being published since 2004 on a regular basis using the web data as indicator of the visibility and impact of the activities of the universities, colleges and research institutions worldwide.</p>
<p>The Ranking's original aim was to show the commitment of these organizations to the electronic publication, the open access to scientific results and the internationalization of their activities. As other rankings are more focused on World Class Universities, our purpose is to offer an extended coverage including information about the developing countries' institutions.</p>
<p>Webometrics' editors are very surprised to discover that Web indicators are not taken into account at all in the evaluation of the universities. Although other indicators are useful for this purpose, Web presence reflects better a large number of variables involved in the University's missions (teaching, research and knowledge transfer). Aspects as academic freedom, level of funding, access to new technologies, relationships with the community, links with companies and industry, open access and sharing policies, students' participation, interdisciplinary, maturity, prestige, leadership or solidarity are considered in the Web as well as the number of research papers, scientific projects or international awards.</p>
<p>The problem is really serious as the data shows a larger than expected academic digital divide affecting also to many developed countries including EU ones and Japan.</p>
<p>We intend to motivate both institutions and scholars to have a web presence that reflect accurately their activities. If the web performance of an institution is below the expected position according to their academic excellence, university authorities should reconsider their web policy, promoting substantial increases of the volume and quality of their electronic publications.</p>
<p>Notice outside of the United States, the highest ranked is the University of Toronto at 28th. I guess universities abroad are not getting the message out about their institutions.</p>