Customer Reviews

Web of Deception: Misinformation on the Internet

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Web of Deception: Misinformation on the Internet is an essential read about a topic many of us deal with several times a day.

General search engines create the databases we search by finding what they can. No time is spent judging and analyzing the accuracy of the site or the reputation of the publisher. Fine, this is how general web search tools work but this is also why it's IMPORTANT that the searcher take a few moments and think about where the material is coming from and who is producing it.

Mintz has assembled an all-star roster of experts to provide the reader with the information and skills needed to recognize, understand, and deal with web credibility and authority issues.

All people who use the web (and that is just about everyone these days) should read this book. It reveals hidden attempts at deception by individuals and groups that hope to purposely mislead. The contributers to Mintz's book collectively remind web users that much on the web is reader beware.
"Web of Deception" provides a cautionary note, but doesn't resort to all out scare tactics. Each chapter is well researched and uses many examples to illustrate purposeful deception by web sites. These contributors obviously know what they are talking about.
The many examples will be especially helpful for teachers and librarians who help others judge the authority and quality of web sites.

This is an important collection of articles, written by people who have been leaders in analyzing information retrieval and content well before there was a web. This is an eye-opener
even for other experienced information professionals but it is especially important for people who are relying on the web as their source of personnel and professional information.

Rather than scaring folks from using the web, this book is an incredibly useful tool in helping individuals, other researchers, teachers, and business people to use the web more effectively.

Thanks to Anne Mintz and her colleagues for publishing this book and thanks to her employer for supporting her efforts in making us all more responsbile users of web information.

Anne Mintz has gathered the collective wisdom of nine experts on web research, and each chapter is full of useful advice on how to suss out misinformation on the Net. In addition to the obvious scams, it covers issues such as what search engines DON'T search, how health misinformation gets disseminated, and how to evaluate the validity of information on the web.

This should be required reading for anyone with access to the web.

"Web of Deception" is a wake-up call to adult on-line users of the Internet and arguably the most important book of the Cyber Age to date. Its focus is on the deliberate deceptions on the Net that can wreak havok on your health, privacy, investments, purchases, business decisions, and legal affairs.

Editor Mintz and her collegial experts wrote the book not to scare but to empower Internet users to take control. "Web of Deception" should be required reading for Internet users and in all computer classes. It can also be a valuable text in a course on the Dark Side of the Information Age.

If we thought about where material comes from and who is producing it, it can be a slippery slope! A book the author cites in the very first page of the introduction (i.e. David Duke...) is a book all about how we should rebel against the information coming from Hollywood because it is mostly Jewish (as the Jews readily acknowledge) among other things. Further, she talks about Dr Martin Luther King Jr. and websites supposedly giving false information about him -- such as the fact that he plagiarized his doctoral thesis (among other writings). This is actually true. There was an inquest about it at his university, and they found entire pages lifted almost completely verbatim from another thesis and other sources. They decided not to revoke his PhD because of his reputation and because they said it "would serve no purpose". While the spirit and idea of this book is excellent, the authors do a bad job of verifying and researching the weighty issued they are addressing. FAR from simply attending to the intent of the websites, we need to still stick to FACTS! Intent is just one thing we have in our arsenal of deception-busting! FACTS are the MOST important! I was ironically left with a feeling that the authors did not just want facts, but had a political agenda which made the book one-sided. Facts, and objective truth can solve the world's problems, but only if we lose our biases all around -- even our own pet ones.

This is an invaluable resource for information professionals in any realm, be it the corporate boardroom or the neighborhood public library. Its many contributors give insight into how the Internet is being used to disseminate information, and how online communities function. This book is not engendered by fear, but out of the reality that misinformation (erroneous information) and disinformation (malicious information) abounds on the Web, and real harm can be done. I hope that the editor and contributing authors will update it, given new trends in online communities, and the many changes in the world of search. If I may suggest the title: "Web 2.0 of Deception."

This is an important collection of articles, written by people who have been leaders in analyzing information retrieval and content well before there was a web. This is an eye-opener
even for other experienced information professionals but it is especially important for people who are relying on the web as their source of personnel and professional information.

Rather than scaring folks from using the web, this book is an incredibly useful tool in helping individuals, other researchers, teachers, and business people to use the web more effectively.

Thanks to Anne Mintz and her colleagues for publishing this book and thanks to her employer for supporting her efforts in making us all more responsbile users of web information.

I think the title of the book says it all. Yes, there is misinformation out there, but most savvy or even reasonable smart people see it for what it is. Books like this just further the fear that people have about using the Internet for research, and downplay the incredible contribution the Internet has made. This is a clear case of creating drama and "intrigue" to sell books. Shame on Anne Mintz and her fellow for contributors for creating their own "Web of Deception." And shame on Forbes Inc for using their weight to make it credible.