By Anick Jesdanun
The Associated Press

NEW YORK - Americans who use the Internet consider it at least as important as newspapers and books, even as they've become more skeptical of what they find online, a UCLA survey finds.

The Internet now exceeds television, radio and magazines in importance among online users, the third annual nationwide telephone survey of 2,000 households determined.

"When you need real information you always go to the library. But (for) easier stuff, and you're too lazy to go to the library, you can find it from Google," the Internet's leading search engine, said Yale University junior Ralph Byrd, 20.

Only 53 percent of users believe most or all of what they read online, down from 58 percent a year earlier, according to the survey, released Friday by the Center for Communication Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Further, nearly a quarter of those who expressed concern about using credit cards over the Internet say nothing can ease their fears.

Byrd, for one, tries to check information against other sites before believing it.

Alisha Richman, 20, of Houston, said she trusts health information only from doctors or hospitals and reports in science journals she reads online. Much of what's out there, she said, is often "kind of iffy."

The increased skepticism is healthy and reflects people "getting burned finding they haven't been trained to look at what the sources are, whether it's credible," said Jeff Cole, director of the UCLA center that conducted the study.

Beau Brendler, director of the nonprofit Consumer WebWatch online credibility project, points to newspaper headlines announcing the latest scams and incidents of identity theft.

Only last week, the Federal Trade Commission announced that complaints about identity theft doubled last year, with victims reporting hijacked credit cards, drained bank accounts and tarnished reputations.

Brendler considers the increased skepticism good for consumers, but bad for Web sites.

"It should be a potent signal to Web sites that they should do a better job ensuring that information is credible and Web sites are safe and secure," he said.