Search Engines - 70% Get Lost and End Up in Unexpected Places: Survey
When
online searches fail, more than half conclude "it’s there, but I
can't find it". Many U.S. professionals do not get the results
they are looking for and are forced to abandon their efforts when they use
popular Internet search engines for work-related research, according to a
survey of more than 1,000 professionals, commissioned by Convera Corp. (CNVR).
The survey reveals the critical challenges to productive search at work:
Over 95% of professionals rely on Web search at work, but results are inconsistent and mediocre.
- only 40% say they are very satisfied with the results.
- Only 21% feel that their search query is always understood.
- Under 25% of professionals are very confident that when using popular Internet search engines they’ve looked everywhere to find answers.
70% get lost online.
- Only 10% of professionals always finds exactly what he or she is looking for on the first attempt.
- About 70% admit getting sidetracked during the search process and end up on sites they didn’t expect to visit and are not relevant to their work.
- Over 60% disclosed they do not ask for help when lost, while 80% said they have never been trained to use the advanced search feature.
Businesses pay employees to hunt for information that can’t be found:
- Surprisingly, when searches do not return precise information, more than half of professionals believe the information they’re seeking exists, but they do not have the skills to find it.
- One third of professionals will make decisions without all the facts they need after a series of search attempts fails to help them.
The search for professional-grade alternatives
The survey also questioned professionals on how they address failed searches:
- 90% tend to enter into the same search engine a new term that has a similar meaning hoping for better results,
- 60% will try another popular search engine.
- Over 50% will try a vertical or topic specific search engine.
The survey asked professionals about their preference for vertical or topic specific search engines being developed by trade publications and professional organizations.
- Nearly 90% of professionals believe that such search engines would offer more relevant content than popular Internet search engines.
- 86% feel these tools would find information more quickly.
- 85% believe they would offer access to content not indexed by popular search engines
Source: Consumer Search Engines Leave Professionals at a Loss: Convera® Survey
