Google Skepticism January 17, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Data, Opinion.trackback
TechCrunch is reporting that a study from the University of Southern California Center for the Digital Future shows that only 51% of people trust the information returned by search engines. This is down from 62% a year ago. In addition, Internet users see online sources of information to be more important than other media like TV and newspapers.
I’m not ready to make too much of the numbers, but if these statistics are accurate, I think it is healthy to be skeptical of all information sources, especially ones we use the most. I see this as good news for education as it stresses the point that all facts and media (including text books) should only be trusted to the extent they can be verified.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/17/search-atheism-on-the-rise/
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This is kind of like when pollsters ask people if they trust the media — It’s almost a push poll because it’s asked in such a broad-based way. i wouldn’t be surprised if these people who claim they don’t trust google searches regularly use them anyway with complete trust.