Researchers at the Universities of Bristol, Oxford and Manchester set out to replicate a typical search that might be undertaken by a person looking for instructions and information about methods of suicide using the four most popular search engines -- Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask -- and 12 simple search terms.

They analyzed the first 10 sites from each search, giving a total of 480 hits.

Altogether, 240 different sites were found and just under half of these provided some information about methods of suicide. Almost one-fifth of hits were for dedicated suicide sites, of which half were judged to be encouraging, promoting or facilitating suicide.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal, also found that 62 sites, or 13 percent, focused on suicide prevention or offered support -- and 59 sites, or 12 percent, actively discouraged suicide.

Almost all dedicated suicide and factual information sites provided information about methods of suicide, the study said.