[Sigia-l] Scary facts on search engines

[Listera]

>From the latest Pew Search Engine report:

 Internet users behave conservatively as searchers: They tend to settle
quickly on a single search engine and then stick with it, rather than
switching as search technology evolves or comparing results from different
search systems. Some 44% of searchers regularly use just one engine, and
another 48% use just two or three. Nearly half of searchers use a search
engines no more than a few times a week, and two-thirds say they could walk
away from search engines without upsetting their lives very much.

 Internet users trust their favorite search engines, but few say they are
aware of the financial incentives that affect how search engines perform and
how they present their search results.

 Only 38% of users are aware of the distinction between paid or ³sponsored²
results and unpaid results. And only one in six say they can always tell
which results are paid or sponsored and which are not. This finding is
ironic, since nearly half of all users say they would stop using search
engines if they thought engines were not being clear about how they
presented paid results.

<http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/146/report_display.asp>

Many more interesting findings in the full report:

< http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Searchengine_users.pdf>

Ziya
Nullius in Verba