Descriptions of Web Sites in Search Listings: A Potential Obstacle to Informed Choice of Health Information

The American public increasingly uses the Internet to obtain health information.1–5 Researchers have scrutinized the quality of health Web sites,6–10 but relatively few have studied the Web portals that deliver sites to users.11,12 Health consumers must rely on brief site listings generated by portal searches when deciding which Web site to access. These analyses examine the extent to which such site descriptions provide adequate cues about site sponsors and their intent to sell products on Web sites.