In terms of daily online activities, search is second only to emailing. Nearly half of users (49 percent) use a search engine to find what they are looking for on a daily basis, according to a study conducted by Pew Internet & American Life Project. The number of people who search has grown tremendously since 2002 when it was only 29 percent. Pew surveyed 2,251 adults on their web habits this past April and May for the study.

The study also found that 60 percent of users email at least once a day, 39 percent visit a news site daily, and 30 percent check the weather online daily. Interestingly, even with the current rise of social media, only 13 percent of users log onto these sites once a day.

Analysts cite accessibility, speed, and relevance of searches as the main catalysts for the growing use of search. Search engine algorithms are more accurate and are providing more relevant search results than in years past. Additionally, 55 percent of Americans use broadband to access the Internet, which gives them faster a loading time for web pages, increasing the likelihood that they will spend more time online searching.

It should be noted that Google and their creative branding techniques have driven the popularity of search. Google has also designed user friendly software that has been integrated into numerous websites to provide internal site searches. Because Google has become a household name, it is a first impulse for people to just “Google it” when they do not know the answer to something.

This study proves that search is becoming a part of Internet users’ daily routines, which is good news for those competing for top search engine rankings.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 8th, 2008 at 2:13 pm by Brittany Paxman and is filed under Industry News & Research, Search Engines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.