Table 1.
The main characteristics of included websites.
| Characteristics | Baidu (N=50), n (%) | Google (N=50), n (%) | P value | |
| Country | —a | |||
|
|
China | 50 (100) | 0 (0) |
|
|
|
United States | 0 (0) | 24 (48) |
|
|
|
United Kingdom | 0 (0) | 20 (40) |
|
|
|
Other | 0 (0) | 6 (12) |
|
| Website ownerb | <.001 | |||
|
|
Public or health professional institutions | 0 (0) | 12 (24) |
|
|
|
Manufacturer/retailer | 33 (66) | 15 (30) |
|
|
|
Media/information technology services | 15 (30) | 12 (24) |
|
|
|
Charity/not-for-profit nongovernment organization/other | 2 (4) | 11 (22) |
|
| Type of informationc |
|
|||
|
|
Health education | 3 (6) | 30 (60) | <.001 |
|
|
News | 21 (42) | 14 (28) | .14 |
|
|
Advertisement | 37 (74) | 15 (30) | <.001 |
|
|
Blogs/user feedback | 21 (42) | 11 (22) | .03 |
| Content coveragec |
|
|||
|
|
What are e-cigarettesd | 31 (62) | 35 (70) | .40 |
|
|
E-cigarettes’ harm | 32 (64) | 40 (80) | .08 |
|
|
E-cigarettes for quitting | 35 (70) | 31 (62) | .40 |
|
|
E-cigarette regulation | 23 (46) | 33 (66) | .04 |
aNot applicable.
bP value for the website owner was a test of null hypothesis that there was no statistically significant difference in the proportion of website owners between Baidu and Google search engines.
cAs individual items were not mutually exclusive for type of information and content coverage, P values for items belonging to these 2 variables were tests of null hypothesis that there was no statistically significant difference in the proportion of an individual item between the 2 search engines.
de-cigarettes: electronic cigarettes.