The number of visitors to major health insurance provider websites has declined during the past year due to the increase in U.S. unemployment, according to a new report from comScore.
There has been a corresponding increase in the number of searches related to obtaining health coverage during the past year.
Google News Organizes a Lot More of the World’s Information
Last year, Google News began digitizing newspapers to make them accessible and searchable online. Those interested in the online news industry and its relationship to newspapers will be interested to know that Google has quadrupled the number of articles included in the Google News Archive Search since the initiative began in September.
Articles are coming from new sources like:
Majority Find Online Health Information Reliable
The number of people looking for health information online has reached 154 million, representing 67 percent of the U.S. adult population, according to a new poll from Harris Interactive.
The majority (83%) of people looking for health information online indicate their search was successful and almost half (45%) say it was "very successful."
An even larger majority (87%) believes that this information was reliable, but only 28 percent said it was "very reliable."
More Americans Going Online For Health Information
The majority (61%) of Americans are going online for health information and most are reading reviews and comments posted by other users, according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Among those who have gone online, 59 percent have done at least one of the following activities:
Blogs or Mainstream News, Where’s The Real Information?
I know what you’ve been thinking: man, I’m tired of reading unfounded rumors reported as news. Yeah, me too. Really, I am. So let’s fix this. Let’s stop reading blogs—I mean, you know all they do is just post anything that comes into their heads, foundation or not—and stick to the venerable guardians of all truth, the mainstream media.
Workers Sharing Too Much Information On Social Networks
More than half (63%) of system administrators are concerned that employees share too much personal information on their social networking profiles, putting company infrastructure at risk, according to a new survey by Sophos.
The Information Mafia Cometh
In light of the hysteria generated by the Associated Press’s plan to go after online news aggregators, Google is quick to point out any action the AP takes won’t apply to them. Why? Because Google already struck a deal with the AP.
Accessibility Information Webmasters Can Use
Web Accessibility organization WebAIM has posted results from an interesting survey on the use of screen readers. Webmasters should pay attention to this, as accessibility is an important part of your online presence, but is often ignored or overlooked. Just ask Target, who settled an accessibility lawsuit last year for $6 million.
Google Offers New Resource for Analytics Information
Google seems to really want to spread awareness about Google Analytics, and get more people to understand how to use all of its features. This is a good thing because analytics are obviously important for keeping your site’s performance up to its potential. A couple weeks ago they announced a new Google Analytics Help Forum with participation from Google employees as well as top contributors, and seasoned analytics pros:
Health Information Sites See Rapid Growth
Online health information sites have grown 21 percent as a category in the past year, more than four times the growth rate of the entire U.S. Internet population according to a new study from comScore.WebMD Health continues to be in the top position of the category with 17.3 million visitors in July, up three percent over a year ago. Three other health networks increased the overall growth of the category, each pulling in more than ten million visitors.