Top Results, Questionable Advice: Search Engines Help to Spread Misinformation

​Evidenced-based answers to medical questions are not always the top results on search engines such as Google, and that could be a problem for healthcare providers, according to a July 3, 2018, article in Wired. For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends vitamin K shots for newborns. However, if one googles "vitamin K shot," the first result is a website that advises, "Skip that newborn vitamin K shot." CDC's recommendation is the fourth result, buried beneath Google's "People also ask" feature.