A Study conducted by OneUpWeb has found that many users are indifferent to the real time results that are now being incorporated into search engines.
The study - which aimed to understand how users respond to real time results - used eye-tracking with a sample of 44 people who were divided into two groups: “consumers” and “information foragers.” The first group – dubbed the ‘consumers’ was made to search for a product they may buy whereas the second – the foragers’ looked for information on a product.
The interesting points from the study found that:
- - 73% of people had never heard of real-time results before the study
- - 47% of the people in forager group found real time useful compared to one quarter of the consumer group.
Overall the majority of the participants in the study did not care about having real time search results. More analysis on the findings can be seen on Search Engine Land.
These findings will no doubt cause a bit discussion about the usefulness of real time search results with many people likely to take a swipe a Google. Since Goolgle’s introduction of real time search results there have been a lot of crisitcising of the way Google have handled it with many suggesting Google rushed into it. This may be the case; however in the ultra competitive search market coupled with Google’s stubbornness not to be outdone by anyone has meant that the real time search results we are seeing are most likely not the finished article just yet.