Finding information on the internet

You are right - there is great deal of information on the internet! There are millions of websites out there and more are being added all the time. The size and scope of the internet means it’s a great place to find information.

But anyone can set up a website and put up information that looks official and reliable. This makes it difficult to distinguish between what is good, reliable information and what isn’t.

We have listed below some general pointers below to help you

• Website addresses
• Is the information up to date?
• Who has written the information?
• Can you check the information?

• Are there contact details?
• Could the website be biased?
• What are the aims of the site?

The internet address of a website can tell you about its reliability even before you have visited the site. Internet addresses ending in the following letters generally belong to non commercial organisations

• .gov
• .ac
• .gov.uk
• .ac.uk

Most websites whose addresses end in the letters below belong to charities and public sector organisations. But they are also available for commercial use

• .org
• .org.uk

The endings below are for commercial sites

• .co.uk
• .com
• .net

While a reliable website may have an internet address ending in any of these, it is worth remembering than anyone can buy these addresses. A website ending in .com could belong to anyone from a commercial organisation to your next door neighbour, so it’s best to be careful.

Reliable websites containing factual information should always include a note about when the information was last updated or reviewed. This will normally be at the bottom of each page. For example, if you scroll down to the bottom of this page, you should see the text “last updated” with a date next to it.

This is not quite so important on websites about personal experiences, or on online community sites which provide their users with moral support. But if a site claims to contain accurate information about a medical treatment, for example, it should be specific about its information being accurate and up to date. Even if the actual information doesn’t change, reliable websites will still review the information and include the review date on the page.

NB: The “last updated” text on some websites (not this one!) changes automatically each day or month without the website authors making any changes to the page. If you are unsure if the information on a website is current, contact whoever runs the website to ask what their updating policy is.

As we’ve said, anyone can put information on the internet. So it is important to find out who has written a site and whether they are qualified to do so. This is particularly important with medical information. These are some of the questions you might want to ask

• Are the writers recognised authorities in this information (eg, do they have qualifications)?
• If not, has someone qualified checked the information?
• Is the information research based, or is it just the writer’s opinion?
• How do the writers decide what to base their information on?
• Is the information on their site in line with that on other reliable sites?
• Are they just providing information, or is the site trying to sell you something?

The answers to these questions may be found in the website’s editorial policy, or on its “about us” page. Again, if in doubt, contact the site and ask.

The information on a website should tell you where the information came from. They may include a list of journal article references or links to the books they used. If not, you should be able to contact them to find out the source of the information. It is always worth checking other websites or books to see if they say the same thing, or if not, why they say something different. Many websites will offer links to other similar organisations and websites.

Who is responsible for the website? Is there an address, phone number or email address? The website should include these details on the homepage or in their ‘about us’ or ‘contact us’ sections.

Some websites are sponsored or are advertising or selling something. This does not necessarily mean the information isn’t accurate, but it may not give you all the options or choices open to you. Some sites trying to sell ‘alternative’ remedies have very official looking information on them, but when you look more closely you find it is all produced by the company selling the ‘remedy’.

If you are unsure, compare the information with websites or books you trust already, or run an internet search and see how many other websites are saying the same thing.

A good website will tell you who it is for and what it is trying to do. If the aim is not clear the headings of sections and titles of pages may tell you if it will be able to answer your question. If these aren’t clear either, then it probably isn’t a reliable website!

In the end, the websites you choose to trust will depend on the kind of information you are looking for. For example, websites about personal experiences will be very different from factual websites with information about a medical treatment. You may prefer one website over another because of how it looks and ‘feels’ rather than anything to do with the content. The way the information on a website is written can affect how you respond to the site.

If you keep the pointers on this page in mind, you should be able to tell the reliable websites from the unreliable ones. A good place to start looking for reliable websites is in our list of cancer organisations.