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®The Original S earch Engine Marketing Firm
iProspect Blended Search Results Study
April 2008
©Copyright 2008 iProspect.com, Inc. | All Rights Reserved | 800.522.1152 | interest@iprospect.com | www.iprospect.com
Table of Contents Objective & Background 3
Study Methodology 4
Executive Summary 5
Survey Questions, Results & Analysis 7
About iProspect's Research 20
Appendix 21
©Copyright 2008 iProspect.com, Inc. | All Rights Reserved. | Tel: 800.522.1152 | Email: interest@iprospect.com | Web: www.iprospect.com 2
Objective & Background In December 2007 and January 2008, iProspect partnered with JupiterResearch to develop and field a survey containing questions about the behavior of search engine users. The objective of the survey was to uncover data that would enable search marketers to better understand how search engine users behave when they conduct different types of searches and are presented with different types of search results within the three largest search engines (in terms of market share): Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. The survey focused largely on search engine user behavior as it pertains to "blended" search results (coined "Universal Search" by Google in May, 2007) that are now presented to search engine users by all three major search engines (initiated within MSN in July, 2007 and within Yahoo! in October, 2007). The results of this survey and subsequent analysis by iProspect comprise this document - the iProspect Blended Search Results Study - in which iProspect also provides actionable advice to search marketers on how to capitalize on these findings. Beyond its focus on blended search results, the survey also sought to uncover several other search engine user behavior trends. In order to accomplish this, it included a number of questions that were also asked in previous iProspect surveys whose results were published in four prior studies: Marketing Tactics of Big Brands Not Meeting Web User Expectations (July, 2002), Searcher Behavior Shows Top Listings Are Most Important (November, 2002), the iProspect Search Engine Marketing User Attitudes Study (April, 2004) and the iProspect Search Engine User Behavior Study (April 2006). Trending information within the iProspect Blended Search Results Study is derived from these previous studies. The panels used for each of the studies whose results are compared to the survey results that comprise this 2008 study were all different. iProspect believes that an apples-to-apples comparison of the results can still be made because in each case, the third-party provider of the panel attested to the fact that the panel was representative of the U.S. online adult population at the time the survey was conducted. It should also be noted that in each case an independent third party compiled and analyzed the results of the surveys prior to providing the results to iProspect. The methodology for the iProspect Blended Search Results Study is described below, and the methodologies used for the 2006, 2004, and 2002 studies can be found in the Appendix at the end of this study.
©Copyright 2008 iProspect.com, Inc. | All Rights Reserved. | Tel: 800.522.1152 | Email: interest@iprospect.com | Web: www.iprospect.com 3
Study Methodology In December 2007 and January 2008, JupiterResearch designed and fielded a survey to online consumers selected randomly from the NPD U.S. online consumer panel. A total of 2,404 individuals responded to the survey. Respondents were asked questions about their behaviors, attitudes, and preferences as they relate to portable and home consumer electronics devices, home networks, search engine use, and data and voice services. Respondents received an email invitation to participate in the survey with an attached URL linked to a Web-based survey form. The samples were carefully balanced by a series of demographic characteristics to ensure that they were representative of the U.S. adult online population. Demographic weighting variables included age, gender, household income, household education, household type, region, market... [download for more]
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