[Sigia-l] Scary facts on search engines

[Karl Fast]

I saw an article on this. IIRC, the data was collected through
telephone surveys. I suspect that these "facts" might turn out a bit
different if you observed real users.

If you want to know if people can tell the difference between real
and sponsored results, cold-calling and asking them over the phone
doesn't seem like a great way of getting the data. 

I'm sure some findings in this study are more reliable, but that one
(which was the headline of the article I read) seems a bit shaky.


--karl


> 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 
> 
> 
> 
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--karl
http://www.livingskies.com/