The Word Wide Web is promoting a revolution in communication no less important than the development of movable type, radio or television. A vast amount of information is now available to anyone with access to a computer and a telephone line. This situation extends to medical and nutritional information, which can be obtained from numerous sources. Estimates in Fall 1999 are that, by the end of 2002, the majority of Americans will be on-line.
Patients have access to as much or, sometimes, more information than their physicians.
While the ability to obtain this information can assist patients, it can also be a source of serious problems due to the inability of most people to put issues in context and to distinguish competent from incompetent sources. Searching for nutrition topics can be a daunting task due to the very nature of the Web. Pages that come up in the first 10 or 20 are likely to be accessed while those below are very unlikely to be read. The Web can be thought of as a vast library in which each page has been cut from its book and thrown into an enormous pile. Pages are changed, added or removed constantly without any announcements.