August 04, 2005

56% find Web sites via Search Engines

According to a recent Burst Media poll of 13,000 web users, 56% of those responding indicated they primarily rely on search engines to get them to Web sites.

Trailing search, 28% of respondents indicated they will type in the URL or click a bookmark. Clicking links was a distant third with 16% indicating they click links from other sites or advertisements.

Those who use search engines to locate sites varied by age group:

18-24 -- 46%
25-54 -- 61%
55-64 -- 61%
Over 65 -- 49%

More information can be found on the
Burst Media site.

Posted by whunt at 02:32 PM | Comments (0)

July 25, 2005

Searchers Unaware of Paid Ads

A recent Harris Interactive survey found that more than half of Internet users did not know the difference between paid search listings and natural search engine results. The research found that that 56 percent of Internet users said they did not know the difference between "sponsored (paid) and natural (non-sponsored) search engine result listings."

Some other interesting facts from this research were related to age... 53 percent of 18 to 34 year olds and 62 percent of those 55 and over did not know the difference between the ad types.

We would think the crafty old-time searchers would know the difference... that appears not to be the case... 53 percent of users online for 5+ years did not know the difference between the ad types.

I guess the placement of the ads or the disclaimers must be better at Google since 54% of Google users said they understood the difference between paid an organic results. Only 42% of Yahoo and 36% of MSN users understood the difference.

I think this helps support GSI's position on "Surround Sound" -- that having multiple, complimentary messages in both organic and paid helps position you as a dominate player and may lead the consumer to have more confidence and increased willingness to click through.

Posted by whunt at 03:52 AM | Comments (0)

July 23, 2005

What are searchers thinking? - Biznology Article

Mike Moran offers and excellent recap of an very interesting session from Ad:Tech San Francisco in his April 25th edition of Biznology Blog entitled What are searchers thinking?

This article compliments the material in Chapter 4 of the book where we go into great detail related to how searchers search and their motivations. We are expecting more research to come out over the next few weeks which we will profile here as well as on Mike's Biznology Blog.

Posted by whunt at 01:22 AM | Comments (0)