"Praise Worthy": The WebWatch Credibility Campaign

Chances are you're reading this because you've seen our advertisement in major national U.S. newspapers. To see the fourth ad in a series of national ads we began running in 2003, click here. (To download Adobe's PDF reader, click here.)

These ads are intended to call attention to Consumer Reports WebWatch's five guidelines for improving Web site credibility, published more than a year and a half ago in April, 2002, when we launched this site. We believe our campaign, which has now signed up 95 sites — from single-person labors of love that accompany a small local business to some of the most well-known companies in the world — has been and will continue to be a success.

Large or small, what these sites have in common is a commitment to comply with our five guidelines. Some of the sites passed easily, already doing the things called for. Others worked with us to address issues and problems and make changes in order to get there.

We believe, in the current economy and especially in the Web marketplace, this commitment is significant. The ads are our way of recognizing the commitment these sites have made, and serve as a way to call attention to what we believe are the minimum set of publishing practices consumers expect. In the future, we will be calling attention to even more sites that have taken the pledge. We'll also be calling attention to those that do not. You can read the list of all sites that have taken the pledge, and passed it, here.

It's important to say Consumer Reports WebWatch didn't somehow arrive at these guidelines by sitting on a mountaintop. They are derived directly from research we published more when our site launched, using social science methods. Via a telephone survey we asked 1,500 Web-savvy U.S. adults to tell us what qualities of a Web site led them to trust it. We also asked them how much they trusted Web sites, and what concerned them most about current Web site practices. We were startled by some of the results. The survey has been written about in The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal newspapers, talked about on CNBC, Fox, on dozens of U.S. radio stations, and covered by the Associated Press, Reuters and other media. You can read the survey in its entirety here, along with our growing body of groundbreaking research.

We didn't stop there. We debated the issues and the guidelines among Consumer Reports WebWatch's advisory board, among companies, interest groups, consumer organizations, engineers, programmers, practitioners and others. This year we have shown them to audiences in central Europe — to representatives from Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and other countries — and to an audience of consumer advocates in Portugal, representing countries in Asia, Africa and elsewhere.

The guidelines are not intended to be a solution to all the credibility problems and concerns facing Web publishers, consumers and readers. They are certainly not the first set of Web site guidelines to be published — in fact, we have learned that there are many others out there. Our guidelines are intended to be a set of measurements for all sites to look towards in creating a more credible Web.

In reviewing sites and developing the list for these ads, we came upon some interesting and creative practices. Some very small sites, such as Cleverwood.com, take extraordinary (and potentially expensive) customer service measures, subscribing to multiple third-party verification programs and embracing a significant level of disclosure, one of the most important principles behind our guidelines.

On its site, Travelocity went as far as to place critical consumer information, along with text links to other important consumer destinations on the site, all on a single page. Anthem.com, the Web site of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, sets new ease-of-use standards, in our opinion, for consumers searching for information critical to a positive health site user experience. Orbitz tells users where to download software that can be used to eliminate its own pop-up ads. Adobe posts a PDF file (of course) listing its own corporate governance guidelines, and on its site tells you how to contact the company not just in the United States, but in Italy, Norway, Mexico, Brazil and other places around the world. And in addition to being a Web-wide example of best practices in displaying what we call "critical consumer information" — physical location, means of contact, privacy policy — WebMD also publishes photographs and biographies of its writers and the medical staff that reviews its stories for accuracy.

Of course, these kinds of things are not specified in the five guidelines, but we believe they demonstrate a strong commitment to consumers and readers that all sites would do well to emulate.