Online Information of COVID-19: Visibility and Characterization of Highest Positioned Websites by Google between March and April 2020-A Cross-Country Analysis.

Anna Kłak,Jakub Owoc,Małgorzata Mańczak,Robert Olszewski,Urszula Religioni,Ewelina Ejchman-Pac,Jolanta Grygielska

doi:10.3390/ijerph19031491

Abstract

Background: The WHO has used the term “infodemic” to describe the vast amount of false and true information that was making it difficult for people to find reliable information when they needed it. The infodemic spreads faster than COVID-19 itself. The main objective of the study was to characterize and analyze content about COVID-19 returned by Google during the pandemic and compare it between countries. Methods: The study was conducted between 30 March and 27 April 2020. The information was searched through local Google websites using the “COVID-19”, “Coronavirus”, “SARS-CoV-2” and “fake news” keywords. The search was conducted in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Singapore, Spain, UK and the USA. The total number of the analyzed webpages was 685. Results: The most frequent types were News websites 47% (324/685) and Governmental 19% (131/685) while the least were Health portals 2% (17/685) and Scientific journals 5% (35/635), p < 0.001. United States and Australia had the highest share of Governmental websites. There was a positive correlation between the amount of preventive information and a number of SARS-CoV-2 infections in countries. The higher the number of tests performed, the higher was the amount of information about prevention available online. Conclusions: Online information is usually available on news and government websites and refers to prevention. There were differences between countries in types of information available online. The highest positioned (the first 20) websites for COVID-19, Coronavirus and SARS-CoV-2 keywords returned by Google include true information.

Highlights

Globalization, common access to the Internet and the rapid development of social media make fake information easy to spread
The typology included: Commercial (C), Government (G), Health portal (HP), News (N), Non-profit (NP), Professional (P), Scientific journals (SJ) and “others” (O).The JAMA score was used and the webpages were annotated according to the following features: (1) the name of the vaccine mentioned; (2) the overall stance on vaccines; (3) the chemicals or adjuvants mentioned; (4) whether the page mentioned complementary and alternative medicine (CAM); (5) whether religion was mentioned; (6) whether the page contained a testimonial; (7) whether a celebrity was mentioned [7]
The results suggest that investigating information from the Google search engine (SERP) may be a useful tool for public health information screening in cyberspace

Summary

Introduction

Globalization, common access to the Internet and the rapid development of social media make fake information easy to spread. The phenomenon is so widespread that the English phrase “fake news” has made it its way to other languages. “Fake news” is defined as: “fabricated information that imitates news media content in form but not in organizational process or intent, which overlaps with other information disorders, such as misinformation (false or misleading information) and disinformation The main objective of the study was to characterize and analyze content about COVID-19 returned by Google during the pandemic and compare it between countries. The information was searched through local Google websites using the “COVID-19”,. The search was conducted in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Singapore, Spain, UK and the USA.

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Discussion

Conclusion