News stories appearing today about a new study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. I haven*t read the whole study yet but I may have to based on some of the truly silly things it appears people have confessed to.
Only 38% of users are aware of the distinction between paid or “sponsored” results and unpaid results. And only one in six say they can always tell which results are paid or sponsored and which are not. This finding is ironic, since nearly half of all users say they would stop using search engines if they thought engines were not being clear about how they presented paid results.
Folks, this is how some otherwise good companies get bad reputations. If people aren*t smart ebnough to realize that the section entitled “Sponsored Links” means “We paid to have our site listed here” then I*m not sure they should be allowed to drive a computer.
UPDATE: Ok, these numbers are from the report itself and I find them oddly disturbing. Can you spot the inconsistencies in peoples* attitudes?
<ul><li>38% of searchers are aware of a distinction between paid and unpaid results; 62% are not. </li><li> 18% of searchers overall (47% of searchers who are aware of the distinction) say they can always tell which results are paid or sponsored and which are not. </li><li> 70% of searchers are okay with the concept of paid or sponsored results. </li><li> 45% of searchers would stop using search engines if they thought the engines weren’t being clear about offering some results for pay.</li></ul>
