98% of Americans Don’t Trust Online Information

With this very high percentage of American people who are uncertain of what they find online, what does this say about the Internet?

Mancx, the trusted community for business answers, recently announced the findings of its online survey of over 1,900 American adults who look for answers online conducted by Harris Interactive in late June 2012.  The survey, which was drafted based on Mancx’s experience in the global knowledge market, found that nearly every online American adult (98%) who looks for information online finds reasons to distrust the information they find, including:

• Too many ads – 59%
• Outdated information – 56%
• Information is self-promotional – 53%
• Unfamiliar forums – 45%

With these numbers, it’s not a surprise that people say their satisfaction could be improved.  In fact, 93% of those who look for information online say they could be more satisfied with the information they find online, and trust is a major factor.  To back this up, nearly 3 in 5 people said it would be an improvement if the answers they found could be trusted and 54% say it would be an improvement if the answers always came from trusted sources.

Online searchers also said they would like improvements in answers always being up-to-date (53%) and less time wasted searching (32%).

“These findings demonstrate that people want online information to be more credible than it is today, and that current web services just don’t cut it,” said Mattias Guilotte, Mancx CMO and Co-founder.

In addition to trust, American adults who look for information online are also concerned about what this means for their daily lives.  94% say they believe bad things could happen to them as a result of acting on inaccurate online information.  Those bad consequences include waste of time (67%), followed by:

• Get a computer virus – 63%
• Lose money – 51%
• Risk of fraud – 51%
• Damage my credibility – 36%

Other consequences include:

• Get Fired – 14%
• Loss of  Spouse/Relationship – 9%

When asked what people would be willing to do if it meant they could always find the information they were looking for online, 2% of American adults who look for information online  even admitted they would be willing to give up their spouse, with men statistically more likely to say this than women.

When the accuracy of online information isn’t causing concern for Americans, the lack of any information related to their search is.  The so-called “offline problem” is still an issue.  Not all information sources have been uploaded, and consumers are noticing.  84% of American adults who look for information online report that there are times when the information they are searching for online is not available online.