According to the new survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, search engine users are confident, satisfied and trusting – but they are also unaware and naïve.
Internet users are confident about the search engines that they use and the experiences they have when searching the internet. But these same satisfied internet users are generally unsophisticated about why and how they use search engines. They are also strikingly unaware of how search engines operate and how they present their results.
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.
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 “sponsored” results and unpaid results.
Pew Internet & American Life Project Search Engine Report (pdf)
Posted by rsk at January 23, 2005 08:30 PM