How we use the web

As internet use has grown, users are much more likely to use search engines to find information than before: up from 19 per cent in 2005 to 57 per cent in 2007²⁸.

A good example of this is the recent global outbreak of Swine Flu which during one week in May 2009, saw UK searches increase 58-fold in a week²⁹. A large number of these searches led people to the relevant Wikipedia page. Wikipedia³⁰ is an online encyclopaedia written collaboratively by users and named editors. So if the key aim is to get the right information to people, perhaps public health officials, content editors at Directgov and NHS Direct should be working in tamden with Wikipedia to make sure that Wikipedia is providing the very best healthcare advice on how to deal with the virus.

This example shows that people are simply becoming accustomed to looking for information on the web in ways that best suit them and appear for whatever reason, to be more likely to go to a website like Wikipedia than Directgov.

While raising obvious questions about where responsibility lies for information and issues around malicious editing, it also suggests a different role for Government; one where instead of trying to hold onto information, it is watching other activity on the web and making sure it is involved as a key voice. This fits with the Central Office of Information’s guidance for civil servants on engaging with social media³¹.

It is really important to understand how people are now using the web to access information. Government needs to think carefully about how to design Directgov in such a way that it becomes renowned for enabling consumers to find information easily, moulding itself around consumer behaviours and expectations, rather than imposing behaviours that work for the provider.

28. Dutton, W.H and Helsper, E.J, 2007. The internet in Britain. Oxford: Oxford Internet Institute
29. Hitwise Intelligence at http://weblogs.hitwise.com/robin-goad/2009/05/swine_flu_searches_increase_58.html
30. Wikipedia. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
31. Central Office of Information: Engaging through social media: a guide for civil servants, 2009