Can Internet Searchers Tell the Difference?

A new study from Pew Internet and American Life Project reveals that online searchers may not differentiate between organic and paid search results. The study also showed that searchers tend to find one engine they like and stick with it (useful info for advertising if you know what engine the majority of your market uses). The study sample tended to use one engine to get search results and then compared their findings within those results, rather than switching from engine to engine. Some 44% of searchers surveyed 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. The most disturbing information comes from the fact that most of those surveyed said that they trust their favorite search engines, but few said 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. 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. " From these results, marketers may want to take another look at which engines are generating most traffic for their campaigns, and the demographics associated with those search engines. For the longest while, the wisdom was that searchers trusted organic results more than paid or sponsored results, but if it turn out that the searchers really can't tell the difference, than all bets are off... You can download the full report here