British companies have lost control of information on their Web sites, according to new research published today by NOP.

The shock news was contained in a survey published today, which found that 77 per cent of companies publish out of date information on the Web.

What's more, four out of ten companies believed that information was duplicated across their company's Web sites, and more than half admitted that it takes over a day to get new information published on their sites.

Despite these failings 83 per cent of those companies that responded said that their Web sites were important business tools used by senior management.

The research was conducted on behalf Mediasurface, a British outfit which describes itself as "Web content management software specialists".

It goes without saying that any outfit that is so quick to damn the online habits of UK companies is, itself, utterly beyond reproach.

But wait. Can this be? A quick glance at of mediasurface.com reveals that the top story under "Latest News" is dated 12 Jun 2000.

And Mediasurface's most recent press release? Certainly today's offering isn't there. Instead, you have to go back to August 14 2000 to find the most recent.

Oh dear. What a great advert for these "Web content management software specialists". Not. ®