Trust and the Web – A Decline or a Revival?

The Web was conceived as the ‘better place’ where trust could have flourished, but this is unlikely to be true anymore. There are two research areas that should be at the forefront of addressing this problem: Web Science and computational trust. This paper concentrates on what, if any, is the role of research in bringing trust into the Web, as the topic of trust currently takes a backseat. Amid the stable progress of research in trust in social psychology, economy, and politics, the bleak future of computational trust and trust on Web deserves an analysis. The paper analyses and reflects on the history of research in trust to conclude that this branch of research withered away before reaching maturity of a discipline. From there, it explores what it takes to accelerate and stabilise the development of research, and what challenges should be tackled first.