The Web's credibility problem: June 04, 2001 issue of New Thinking

June 04, 2001 New Thinking:
The Web's credibility problem

Website content management

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June 04, 2001

The Web's credibility problem

By Gerry McGovern

The Web faces a growing credibility problem. It needs to be addressed urgently. Otherwise, consumer confidence will deteriorate. At the heart of the problem is the myth that industry can ‘police itself’. Most people correctly believe that government is more likely to protect a citizen’s privacy than commercial organizations who will profit by the exploitation of that very privacy.

This is not a pro-government/anti-business rant. It is merely expressing a basic logic. It’s the same as looking at a mountain and saying, ‘That’s a mountain’; looking at a lake and saying, ‘That’s a lake’. Pretending that the lake is the mountain—that industry can do the job of government—is, quite simply, illogical. The longer this illogical thinking is accepted as some new precept of the ‘new economy’, the more damage it will do to consumer confidence in the Web. That’s not good for business.

Consider the following:

A 2000 Forrester Research study found that 75 percent of respondents believe that content on the Web is “poor quality”.
A recent study carried out for the California HealthCare Foundation, found that on English-language websites, content was between 75 percent and 91 percent accurate, while on Spanish websites, it was between 53 percent and 96 percent.
Recent FBI operations in the United States have alleged that more than 90 companies and individuals had illegally taken almost USD120 million from over 55,000 consumers on the Web.
The American Federal Trade Commission receives more complaints about deceptive technology advertising than for any other industry.
The inspector general of the American Social Security Administration has claimed that social security theft—fueled by the Internet—has developed into a “national crisis”.

There are a whole range of issues at play here. At one end of the spectrum is a view that the technology industry plays fast and loose with the law, believing that because it is a ‘new economy’, all the old rules can be torn up. During the buzz years many of us took turns to blow up the Internet bubble, with the ‘change is good’ mantra ringing in our ears. Perhaps we had some excuse for chanting the ‘don’t worry, be crappy’ chorus by some Silicon Valley guru.

Not just the stock market has changed. The Internet and the technology industry has now entered the mass consumer market arena. Consumers expect that when it says ‘plug ‘n’ play’, it means just that, not ‘plug ‘n’ pray’. What was acceptable to a generation of technology buyers brought up to expect buggy technology, is simply not acceptable to the average consumer, used to their fridge or TV working every time they turn them on.

At a more micro level is an extraordinary lack of understanding of the value of content that a great many organizations exhibit. Organizations fail to realize that what they write on their websites is read. Real people come to these websites and believe or don’t believe what they read. In the health study mentioned earlier, for example, it was found that a particular website had two pieces of content that directly contradicted each other.

The problem with content credibility on the Web is widespread and growing. In March of this year, two full months after George Bush was sworn in as US President, the White House website was making this statement: “John Quincy Adams: the only son of a president to serve as president himself.”

It’s not funny anymore.

Gerry McGovern

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Two full months after George Bush was sworn in as US President, the White House website was making this statement: “John Quincy Adams: the only son of a president to serve as president himself.”