What Makes a Web Site Trustworthy?

Consumer Reports WebWatch sought some of the thought leaders in online consumer advocacy and e-commerce, online news and information, human-computer interface and academia to form our advisory board. Our advisers helped craft the project's first set of guidelines for improving Web information practices. The process sparked an intense internal discussion about the nature of credibility and trust online and the sorts of issues consumers and readers face on the Web. We want to share some of that discussion with you.

Each adviser's name is linked to his or her biography.

Jeff Gralnick
"The key to a site's trustworthiness and believability is transparency. Is it clear who is behind the the site and why? Is it clear what the site's real purpose is? Is this, as an example, a 'health site' backed covertly by a tobacco company or a drug manufacture? It needs to be instantly clear upfront where the site is coming from and why. Is 'About Us' easy to find and is it complete? If the answers here are no, consider twice before bookmarking."

Joel Gurin
"One major issue is the whole question of how advertising payment affects results in hidden ways ? in health sites, travel sites, search engines. And the issue of decent business practices is also a question of trustworthiness. Is the site consumer friendly? Is it safe to shop online? If you order something online, is it actually going to be delivered? These are all core issues of trust."

Robert Mayer
"To me, the primary factor that can undermine a site's credibility would be a financial conflict of interest. For example, if a site says, 'We're going to help you get the very best airfares,' but only provides the fares of a narrow set of airlines, I think that could easily confuse or mislead a consumer. Potential conflicts of interest, or the way in which financial interests shape information, is the number one factor in affecting the believability of information."

Jakob Nielsen
"There's a very serious problem in terms of lack of a good payment model, which I think leads to a lot of the credibility problems as well. If there was a simple way to charge customers for services, we wouldn't have a lot of the kind of overwhelming advertising element that we see on the Web today. I actually think that a lot of people would be happy to pay for a certain kind of service, depending on how big and important the service was, if it meant not being bombarded with advertising."

Fred Ritchin
"For the informational sites, brand is one factor, but fortunately far from the only one, as is the fact that there is a tone and the tone is reasonable. It's also important that people running these sites don't just editorialize, but they actually let the reader in on their thinking process, on the sources of their information. Also,do they put up links to other sites, meaning that the other sites can either confirm or disagree with what they have to say, but at least they're acknowledging that they are part of a community of information, of differing perspectives."