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Loading ...Okay, I have written several times about search engines(Microsoft Relaunches Live Search , Consumer Watch does Search Engines, Manage the Brand: Google!), often trying to emphasize the value of “trust” in the search engine results battle. Do you trust google to provide you with the best results? Do you ever use more than one search engine for the same search query? In a recent article on Mashable.com titled, Yahoo’s Quality vs. Google’s Quantity. Who Wins? some interest results emerge…
Okay, I have written several times about search engines(Microsoft Relaunches Live Search , Consumer Watch does Search Engines, Manage the Brand: Google!), often trying to emphasize the value of “trust” in the search engine results battle. Do you trust google to provide you with the best results? Do you ever use more than one search engine for the same search query? In a recent article on Mashable.com titled, Yahoo’s Quality vs. Google’s Quantity. Who Wins? some interest results emerge from a study compiled by Compete.com
In, fact these results go to the heart of my argument - the trust element.
What Compete looked at were the referrals from search queries done across Yahoo, Google and MSN/Live. An entire third of search queries performed on Google led to a dead end, meaning people weren’t clicking on a single search result.
Yes, you read correctly, an “entire third” of google’s searches go no-where. That is sad, or it could mean that google just has sooo much information that it is loosing control of the organization of all of this data. Also, perhaps people turn to google for more obscure searches - research based etc. In addition this study was only based on three months (June, July & August of 07) Also, one could look at the demographics of the Yahoo user as looking for different things. Do people turn to google for information and yahoo for shopping? I don’t know if compete.com breaks any of this out in its full study.
What is important to note, is that google has the quantity because we trust it, we are willing to use it because we believe it will do the best job. These results make one question the validity of that trust. If google’s reputation is going to get consistently questioned and smeared it is in trouble. The internet changes fast, people can easily migrate to a new product with no cost to them.
I am in no way saying that google is in trouble. I just think it is something to be aware of, google is only dominant because we choose to use it. Not because businesses choose to advertise on it. Those businesses would just as happily move to another engine - the cost structure of online advertising is so completely different from earlier mediums effectively enabling change to be far more radical and swift in the online realm.
The battle for trust will continue!!
Filed under: Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Reputation Management, Search Engines
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