When it comes to searcher satisfaction, perception may play just as large a role as the actual quality of the search results. A recent study by Keynote Systems concluded that though there seems to be little difference in actual search results quality across the most popular engines, Google still came out on top as the preferred engine among study participants.
Also from the study, Yahoo! was deemed a strong second, performing most competitively with Google in Local and Image search. AskJeeves finished strongly as third in the mind of the 2,000 consumers examined, beating out MSN for perceived quality. AOL came in 3rd and 5th place, its perceived quality boosted by subscriber searches over public searches (subscriber search 3rd place, public search 5th place).
In fact, familiarity with a search engine, such as is the case with AOL subscribers, seemed to play a major role in perceived quality. For inexperienced searchers, Google reigned supreme, with 82% of searchers being “very satisfied” with their experience. MSN scored only 53% with infrequent searchers.
This gap is much smaller, however, when regular or primary users of the respective engines were polled. Google received a 92% satisfaction rate while MSN received an 84% satisfaction rate.
Once familiarity with a search site increases, their satisfaction and perceptions of that site tend to improve. All sites in the study saw improvements in their brand perceptions with new or infrequent users once those users had conducted several searches on their site. Ask Jeeves received the greatest jump in brand perceptions once new or infrequent users had searched on their site.
“Despite active competitive maneuverings, Google’s challengers have yet to break the leader’s grip on consumers’ affections, although each of the search engines has their own loyal following,” said Dr. Bonny Brown, director of research and public services for Keynote.
“The clear appeal of Google’s homepage, as well as its presentation of sponsored ads and the overall usefulness of its ads continue to be important factors in Google’s continuing success,” she said.
Those “competitive maneuverings” have paid off for AskJeeves and MSN, though. Ask Jeeves showed the largest increase in general search quality over the last year, while MSN had the largest improvement in this area in the past six months, the researchers say.
Ask Jeeves showed improvement in the perceptions of its general search results by reducing the number of sponsored results at the top of the page. MSN’s strongest performance was in the user perception of its search results as being up to date, and the presentation of its sponsored results. In fact, MSN was the only site to show improvement in the perception of its results being up to date.
But neither really came close to Google or Yahoo! in overall user scoring. Google had a strong lead over Yahoo!, and Yahoo! had a clear lead over the rest. Yahoo! came closest to Google in Image and Local search.
When searching for local services or information, 82% of Yahoo! users reported task success, as compared to 83% of Google users, and 66% of Yahoo! users were very satisfied with their search as compared to 71% of Google users. Users are, however, less aware of the local search tabs, with just 28% of Google users and 39% of Yahoo! users in the study turning to the local search function, although there was a “great appreciation” for Google’s integrated local search results.
The consumer appears to be a bit more aware of image searching, with 63% of Yahoo! users and 56% of Google users turning to the image search areas of those sites when searching for an image.
“As these new categories gain in popularity and usage, this may offer an opportunity for Yahoo! to close the gap with Google,” said Brown.
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