Selected news stories about the Pew Internet Project and articles citing our data.
Rampant Malpractice Among Health Searchers
10/31/2006 | 
Coverage
Chris Sherman, Search Engine Watch
'Although most internet users turn to general-purpose search engines to find health related information, the majority don't bother to check the source and date of the information they find, according to a new study from the Pew Internet Project. Seventy-five percent of health searchers say they check the source and date of the information they find using search engines "only sometimes," "hardly ever," or "never." A comparatively small group (15%) say they "always" check the source and date of the health information they find online, while another 10% say they do "most of the time." The report, one of many released in an ongoing series by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, is a follow-up to a similar survey performed in 2001. Surprisingly, the percentages of people saying they check for date and source has decreased since 2001. The report suggests that one potential reason for this lack of due-diligence lies with the health information sites themselves: A recent study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that fewer than 2% of popular health sites display the source and date of the information on their pages. Even so, this lack of scrutiny suggests that many people are not being careful about questioning the credibility or reliability of the health related information they're finding online, and could in fact be relying on incorrect or even potentially dangerous sources. The findings echo those presented in another Pew report from last year, where Pew found that most people said they were confident in their searching skills, yet didn't really understand how search engines worked.
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