All of us Google! We google everything we want to know about. I tell my friends that my present life is possible because the Internet allows me to connect with everything and anyone I need. (We’re not talking today about the impact of that connection on my personal interactions or interpersonal relationship skills. That’s fodder for another post.) The question for today is “How do you know what you really have after you get the Google search results?”
The problem about evaluating content on the Internet is discussed often. Debates about impartiality and veracity of the information you read are ongoing, from news reporters to medical advisers. The advice we offer here is simple and yet complex. It is really about due diligence. Always ask the question “Who is talking?”
Evaluating Search Results
When you perform a Google search, you get search results. I’m sure most of you are already aware that the top items on the page are paid Google advertisements, as well as the items located down the right side. That doesn’t mean the information they provide isn’t useful, it is just a way to know that they are there to try and get you to buy something. In some respects, that gives you a clear idea of who they are, what they offer and what they want from you.
After that you have the items on the list that are searched by Google and come up in a particular order in that list because of their content and its relationship to the subject of your search. Everyone who has a website or writes a commercial blog wants to come up on page one. How they do that is not as straight-forward as it sounds, and the ins and outs of search engine optimization (SEO) will be the topic of several posts on this blog.
For today, however, we care about who is talking. In looking at your search results, the one thing you need to remember is that just because something comes up in the search page list doesn’t say anything about it’s legitimacy or the veracity of its content. When I Google a topic, the one question I mentally ask every time I go to a website that has come up in a Google search is – “Who is talking to me?” If I read about treatments for menopause or explore websites I have found while searching for information about social media and nonprofits, the question is the same. “Who is talking?” And answering that question is not always easy.
Many websites or blogs today are well designed with excellent marketing copy. In fact, many companies, organizations and government entities are moving almost exclusively to a “blog-like” format for their content. The idea is that is seems more “conversational.” You know, just a couple of friends sitting at the kitchen table having coffee. Are they the most informed source on a topic? Not necessarily. They may be providing good information, but do they have an ulterior motive that slants what they provide you?
Finding “About Us”
Some websites tell you upfront and in their web banner exactly who they are. For example, when I was researching web content for a future post on menopause, my Google search produced a number of sites from public agencies. For example NIA has a page of publications, some of which are directly related to women’s health issues. The Department of Health and Human Services also has a site called Womens Health developed specifically by the Office on Women’s Health. I’m not saying that everything that comes out of the federal government is God’s honest truth. I am only suggesting that you can expect greater rigor in the evaluation of what is published than you can expect from a drug company that sells HRT and is telling you about menopause.
If the site doesn’t immediately tell me the source of the information, before I read any content on a page, I scroll to the bottom and look for the “about us” section of the site. When you find the “about us” link, you usually get the information you desire. But finding it isn’t simple. Most websites provide this link and use the exact phrase “about us.” It has become the standard we all expect. Regardless of whether you feel positively or negatively about the content of a website, don’t do anything else until you check the “about us.”
Reader Beware
The Internet is truly a buyer (or reader) beware environment. That can work for you (as in President Obama’s recent campaign for President) or against you (as in President Obama’s recent campaign to convince the voters he was not a Muslim). There are some things you can do so you have a better idea whether you are getting information or propaganda – or how much of each from which side.
When you visit a site where the first thing you see are articles, look around in the sidebars and see what kind of information you find. Most blogs these days host a certain number of ads. It’s one of the way to advertise your blog and increase your readership. And even if your only motivation is that you think you have something important to share, it doesn’t do anyone much good if no one knows it’s there. Other bloggers are trying to both share information and make a living (not a sin, but the way). So advertisements (from Google ads to affiliate marketing) are all options.
As is the way with business and takeovers and multinational corporations (sorry, that may be the jaded failed small business person’s perspective), the blog site on the Internet is no exception. And trying to find out the source of information you read or services you purchase is often a long and convoluted task. The following site is a great example:
After a search on menopause and weight gain, I clicked on one search result on page one that took me to a site called “Life123 - Answers at the speed of life.” “Nice tag line,” I thought. And immediately my next question came. “Who is talking to me?” Looking at all the ads and partners and affiliates only confused me more, and the number of topics made it impossible to locate any single source. If you scroll to the bottom you see that this site was a Mindspark property. Well that peaked my interest. But I search the Internet and write blogs for a living. If I were an ordinary searcher, would I look? I think this one might have even made me curious when my searching was regular person searching. So I went to another Google search and put in Mindspark.
I want to be sure and explain that the Mindspark properties referred to by this website are NOT mindsparke. Mindsparke is a company that makes brain fitness software that has been found helpful with older and young people alike in increasing mental functioning. They used it at a senior program where I volunteered teaching older adults how to use their computers and they were very impressed with the program’s features.
Mindspark, and about a kagillian other companies, is owned by a company called IAC. It would take me several posts to explain IAC, and it took them a very long webpage. If you are interested the links are all here in this post. The long and the short of this is that you never know where asking the “Who” question will take you. Did this tell me whether or not the information I was reading was legitimate? Not totally, but knowing the complexity of ownership caused me to read or “listen” very differently. Being who I am in the business I am in, I found it also fascinating from a cyber-business perspective. Fodder for yet another post…