An estimated one out of six adult Netizens gets confused between search engine results and paid advertising, according to a new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
Part of it is because major search engines bring in mixes of regular, unbiased results based on search term relevance, and sponsored links Websites paid to have displayed more prominently, Pew said in its study released January 23.
“Internet users trust their favorite search engines, but few say they are aware of the financial incentives that affect how search engines perform and how they present their search results,” said Pew senior research fellow Deborah Fallows in the report.
“Only 38 percent of users are aware of the distinction between paid or ‘sponsored’ results and unpaid results,” she continued, adding that 47 percent said they could tell paid results from unpaid. “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.”
Pew found 84 percent of Netizens surveyed have used search engines with 56 percent of people online any given day using them and 92 percent of search engine users saying they’re confident about their search abilities and 87 percent saying they have successful search experiences most of the time. Pew also found 68 percent of those they surveyed say search engines are “fair and unbiased” as information sources, compared to 19 percent who said they didn’t trust them.
“Despite their positive feelings, few Internet users are highly committed to searching,” Fallows wrote. “Most say they could walk away from search engines tomorrow and return to the traditional ways of finding information. About one third of users search on a daily basis, but most search infrequently, with almost half searching no more than a few times a week. Nearly all settle into a habit of using one or just a couple search engines, with only a very few searchers branching out to try more than three.”
And the Pew study – performed between mid-May and mid-June of last year, with 2,200 adults including 1,399 Netizens – found 45 percent of those they surveyed said they’d stop using search engines if the engines weren’t clear about paid results or links.
“Users do not object in principle to the idea that search engines will include paid results,” Fallows wrote, “but they would like them to be upfront and clear about the practice of presenting paid results.”
