Talk:WebMD/Archives/2012

Notability
I am removing the importance tag that was assigned to this article. As of January 8, 2006, WebMD ranks at 701 on Alexa. So the site is notable. The stubs associated with the article are correct, and the article definitely needs to be expanded. But notability is not in question. Lbbzman 23:11, 6 January 2006 (UTC)


 * This really needs to be fixed, it reads like an ad. 165.134.208.6 01:21, 11 October 2006 (UTC)


 * It definitely does -- I made a few changes to try and make it less ad-like. I removed a couple unnecessary adjectives (eg "timely and objective" health information). I also cut about half of the last paragraph out -- most of it seemed pretty meaningless beyond saying that the portals improve users' "overall wellness" and whatnot. I hope that wasn't too drastic. 69.118.25.126 21:28, 15 November 2006 (UTC)


 * The company may be notable but nothing in the article shows this. It needs citations to reliable sources. Katr67 15:50, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Revenue?
What is WebMD's source of revenue?Hnc 04:55, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Pharmaceutical industry connections? http://www.wbmd.com/waynegattinelladir.shtml http://www.wbmd.com/neildimick.shtml http://www.wbmd.com/jeromekeller.shtml —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.130.112.63 (talk) 06:31, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

Change of Title
WebMD is just one subsidiery (sic?) of a larger corporation known as Emdeon Business Services. WebMD was the original name of this company but in 2005, due to mergers and business structure changes the name was changed from WebMD to a combination of it's original name (Healtheon) and it's current name at the time (WebMD) into the now named Emdeon Business Services. This includes WebMD Health, the only part of the company still officially named WebMD. Therefore I think the title should be changed to Emdeon Business Services with a mention towards the name WebMD in the article.

I would be willing to provide such edits, but as they would be large I would want to discuss them first.Nikter 08:25, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Oregon?
What's the Oregon connection of this company? Katr67 15:50, 30 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Search Portland Business Journal for WebMD + Portland, for future reference: http://www.bizjournals.com/search/results.html Katr67 22:07, 31 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Nearly four years later and the article still makes no mention of Oregon, so I've removed the WikiProject Oregon template, at least for now. SJ Morg (talk) 08:24, 7 May 2011 (UTC)

Investor's Business Daily news story of August 16 2007
http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=7&issue=20070816

To be used for citation. Katr67 22:06, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Added references
HI Folks, I added the references I could find. When you enter "WebMD" into Google news it's interesting to note that WebMD itself is a source of many articles published in top-notch journals. This is pretty notable but I wasn't sure how to reflect it in this article. Best wishes, Renee --Renee 01:54, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Dear Godofredo29, Do you have any references for the text you added? If you do then please feel free to add it back in.  We can't add in text like this without references because it sounds like one's personal experiences which sounds like original research.  Best wishes, Renee  --Renee 21:11, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

To Robinlady
Dear Robinlady,

I fixed the refs and related links. I'm not sure why but they were not usable after your contributions.

Under references there were these four things listed:
 * 1) as stated in the 'About Us' section of Medicinenet.
 * 2) according to the Medscape webpage.
 * 3) from the RxList website.
 * 4) from the eMedicineHealth 'About Us' section.

I'm not sure what they're for. If they're important please let me know and we can figure out how to get them in.

Thanks, Renee Renee (talk) 00:48, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Request for articles

 * I think we should create articles for the founding CEO, COO, CIO, etc. Jccort (talk) 17:39, 13 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Go ahead and take a stab at them and let me know where to review them. Do you think they're notable enough (i.e., are there secondary sources on them?).  Renee (talk) 18:10, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

to Laura
Dear Laura, Not sure why you inserted a period between "Web" and "MD" when according to the home page it is simply "WebMD." Can you please help me to understand your rationale? Thanks, Renee (talk) 12:34, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

how to phrase advice?
Dear IP 64 (JBG), I agree these sentences are problematic and need some sort of sourcing: ''It is a common misconception that WebMD offers medical advice to its users, but is clearly stated under the terms and conditions that the site does not provide medical advice. The use of the word "advice" in the site's legal disclaimer is disputed by non-medical professionals.'' The problem with adding the last sentence alone is it sounds like someone's opinion. Do you have a source that says that? If not, I think we should just leave both sentences out. What do you think? Renee (talk) 12:59, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Citation cleanup discussion w.r.t. WebMD
If you are interested in citing webmd as a source in wikipedia articles, see Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Citation cleanup. 72.244.206.84 (talk) 19:56, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

NYTimes magazine column denouncing WebMD
The column, "Online Medical Advice Can Be a Prescription for Fear", in the New York Times Magazine (Feb 4, 2011), denounces WebMD as "synonymous with Big Pharma Shilling" and "permeated with pseudomedicine and subtle misinformation." This seems relevant, possibly to the article, and at least to considerations of the site's use as a source for Wikipedia. JesseW, the juggling janitor 05:42, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

I have made a wiki entry based on this. Someone else can expand on it. This is very important as there have been extensive investigations on this matter including one by a US Senator which is discussed, I believe, in the article. Also, there have been other expose's on this matter and are worth digging up over. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 166.137.143.145 (talk) 01:37, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Here's a post linking to some responses to the NYTimes piece, pointing out some issues with it. JesseW, the juggling janitor 04:49, 3 March 2011 (UTC)

Another articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/12/14/webmd-not-the-independent-health-source-you-expected.aspx post] rounding up sources on WebMD (has somewhat intrusive ads). JesseW, the juggling janitor 04:52, 3 March 2011 (UTC)