Journalists were caught off guard last week when a authentic looking, but pretty fishy sounding, study was released. According to the study, Internet Explorer users scored lower on an online IQ test than other browser users. Many journalists reported on the story, and I had a post ready to be published, but it just didn’t feel right. I’m glad I didn’t, otherwise I’d be laughing at myself (although, to be honest, at first I thought it was legit). It made a lot of top stories, from the BBC to CNN. But, in reality, the company that did the research, ApTiquant, doesn’t even exist. The website for the firm was only recently registered and put online. Ouch. I guess in the age of the Internet, it’s difficult to verify information.
