Paid Results in Search Engines are confusing to Web Users

Search Engines since a long time have carried paid links, which are displayed on search pages for selected keywords. Every company has its own policy on how to display and label them. Generally, they are placed on the right side or the top of the search results. And most search engines label them pretty clearly.

However, recent research done on regular search engine users suggests that people still have troubles identifying whether the search engine results they click are genuine or paid for links. The survey was conducted by Pew Internet and American Life Project and it shows that only one in six users of search engines can tell the difference between unbiased search results and paid ads.

The study finds that people are still much uninformed about the various aspects of the search engines they use on a regular basis. However, most of them are very happy with the quality of results they receive considering most of the users tend to stick to just one search engine.

44% of the users are happy with searching with just one search engine, while around 48% are happy using two or at max three search engines. This shows the kind of brand loyalty Search Engines enjoy with their users. And how important is it to keep the users happy as few bad experiences can lead to user switching to an alternate service.

One of the most impressive finding was that 87% of the users found that they find what they were looking for in search engines and are satisfied with the services offered to them. This should please the big players in the market.

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