Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Search Engine Users: Loyal or Blase?

By Chris Sherman, Associate Editor
April 19, 2004

Searchers are loyal to their favorite search engine, and stubbornly stick with it even if they don't initially find what they're looking for, according to a new survey of web users.

Loyal or lazy? 56.7 percent of Internet users use the same search engine or directory when they are looking for information, according to a new iProspect Search Engine User Attitudes Survey.

Just 30% of web users have a few specific search engines they use on a regular basis. A scant 13% follow the advice that we frequently preach here at Search Engine Watch, using a different search engine depending on what they are looking for.

What are the favorites? No surprises here: Google has what iProspect calls a "loyalty rate" of 66 percent. Yahoo! is next, at 55%, followed by MSN at 54% and AOL at 49 percent.

The survey also found that searchers are hardheaded, with more than 90% tweaking their query and using the same search engine after being dissatisfied with the first three pages of results returned by their initial search. iProspect says that this finding suggests that over time users have developed more confidence in their search engine of choice. Another possible interpretation is that searchers have simply become habituated, or are too lazy to try a different engine when their favorite doesn't measure up.

The survey found that nearly 50% percent of respondents have installed at least one search tool bar. The most popular was Yahoo's, with 22% share, followed by Google's at 20% and MSN's at 17 percent.

fr.: http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3342041

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