6. INFORMATION ACCURACY — 14.3% OVERALL
In 14.3% of the comments about Web Site Credibility, people talked about the accuracy of the site's information. This category includes comments in which people expressed doubt about the information on the site. But this category also includes comments where people confirmed the accuracy of what they found on the site. In assessing accuracy, people often drew on their own knowledge. Samples of comments relating to information accuracy are below:
- Most of the articles on this Web Site seem to be headline news that I have already heard, so they are believable. — F, 50, Ohio
- I work at AOL Time Warner and read the article regarding accounting problems. It accurately quoted an internal memo from Dick Parsons and the general tone was positive, especially given the current business environment. — M, 45, New York
- This site is totally based upon personal opinion and admittedly old data and unscientific methods. — F, 35, Colorado
Information Accuracy comments by site category
As shown in Figure 11, less than one-in-six (14.3%) of all site evaluations commented on the accuracy of site information. This occurred far more frequently in the opinion or review (25.4%), news (21.7%), and health (18.7%) categories, and less frequently in the travel (11.1%), finance (8.0%), and search engines (7.1%) categories.
Figure 11: Percentage of comments relating to information accuracy, by category.
| Category |
Percentage of Site Evaluations |
| Opinion or Review |
25.4% |
| News |
21.7% |
| Health |
18.7% |
| Entertainment |
16.3% |
| Sports |
16.1% |
| E-Commerce |
15.5% |
| All Sites |
14.3% |
| Nonprofit |
13.5% |
| Travel |
11.1% |
| Finance |
8.0% |
| Search Engines |
7.1% |
What we find notable about Information Accuracy
Users come to a site armed with a background of previous knowledge and expertise, and it was clear from this study's comments that this background is a critical tool for making Web Site Credibility assessments. In particular, comments tended to focus on matching what was found on a site to what had previously been read or heard on television — that is, information confirmed from other sources. With respect to Web Site Credibility assessment, the importance of a site's matching existing user beliefs about the content domain, as opposed to challenging those beliefs, is not clear from the comments and would make for interesting further research.
7. NAME RECOGNITION AND REPUTATION — 14.1% OVERALL
One strategy for evaluating Web Site Credibility seemed to be relying on the name recognition or reputation of the site operator (such as the Red Cross). In 14.1% of the comments, people talked about issues of reputation and name recognition. One frequent comment had to do with one's never having heard about an organization before. This hurt the Web Site Credibility of the site. In other cases, people saw a familiar company name and inferred the site was credible because of that. Below are the sample comments coded in this category:
- This site is less credible because the name is unfamiliar. — F, 22, Maryland
- It seems to me that Web Site Credibility is all about the name and having heard about it. — M, 25, Michigan
- CNN is well recognized in the US as a provider of news. Their reputation is not something they would put at risk with unfounded claims or under-researched articles. — M, 24, Illinois
- The Mayo Clinic has a great reputation. I would trust the info I found at this Web Site. — M, 34, Connecticut
Name Recognition and Reputation comments, by site category
As shown in Figure 12, brand name seems to play some role when consumers assess the Web Site Credibility of sites. One in seven (14.1%) site evaluations included comments related to the name recognition or the reputation of a company or the site operator. This occurred more frequently in the e-commerce (25.9%), finance (21.8%), and news (19.1%) categories and less frequently in the health (10.9%), travel (8.8%), and search engine (5.1%) categories.
Figure 12: Percentage of comments relating to name recognition or reputation, by category.
| Category |
Percentage of Site Evaluations |
| E-Commerce |
25.9% |
| Finance |
21.8% |
| News |
19.1% |
| Sports |
18.6% |
| All Sites |
14.1% |
| Nonprofit |
12.7% |
| Entertainment |
11.1% |
| Health |
10.9% |
| Travel |
8.8% |
| Search Engines |
5.1% |
| Opinion or Review |
0.01% |
What we find notable about Name Recognition and Reputation
The comments made clear that a site may be perceived as trustworthy if a user has dealt successfully with the site previously, knows someone who has, knows of the site's large following, has heard good things about the site, or at least has heard of the brand name (sometimes via the site's real-world counterpart).The reputation of brick-and-mortar organizations appeared generally to carry over to those organizations' Web Sites, although the relationship between this tendency and a site's identity information (see section 11) would make for interesting further investigation.
Back to start of the article: A Good Web Site Design Brings Trust and Success
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