The search engine Google was used to generate a list of websites about breast cancer. The top 200 sites returned by Google were divided into “more popular” and “less popular” based on the number of links to a site from other sites.
More popular sites were more likely to contain information on ongoing clinical trials, results of trials than less popular ones. More popular sites were also more likely to provide updates on other breast cancer research, information on legislation and advocacy, and a message board service.
More popular and less popular websites did not differ in any of the quality measures studies. Furthermore, the presence of inaccurate information did not differ between more popular and less popular sites.
These results show that type rather than quality of content determines popularity of websites, say the authors. It remains the responsibility of the medical community to ensure adequate of online medical content, to educate the public regarding quality measures, and to direct patients to sites of known quality, they conclude.
Breast cancer on the world wide web: cross sectional survey of quality of information and popularity of websites BMJ Volume 324, pp 577-81