Sunday, December 06, 2009

Do You Trust Strangers More Than Search Results?


By Chris Crum - Sun, 10/11/2009
Search Results

Do You Trust Strangers More Than Search Results?

Nielsen has shared some interesting findings from its research on how Internet users discover content. The research mainly focused on how content is found through search, portals, and through social media.

"In a nutshell, there is a segment of the online population that uses social media as a core navigation and information discovery tool — roughly 18 percent of users see it as core to finding new information. While still a smaller percentage than those who use search engines or portals like Yahoo! or MSN, it is a significant figure," says Nielsen. "And as social media usage continues to increase (unique visitors to Twitter.com increased 959% YOY in August) I can only expect this figure to grow."

If you were still questioning the possibilities of getting traffic from social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc., perhaps this information will help ease your doubts. While the traffic may not always be as significant as what comes from search, additional traffic is additional traffic, and the viral potential offered by social networks shouldn't be ignored.

The following graph from Nielsen shows how big of a role sites besides search engines play in actual searches for new information online.

Read the rest of the article here:
Search Results

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Penny and Doug
cupenny@tds.net
Penny's Antiques & Wedgwood Pantry





Quote of the Day:
Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results. George S. Patton

2 comments:

Opus #6 said...

I like to hear my friend's take on the news. As we have been blogging together for almost a year now, I will no longer call them strangers.

The folks on Twitter, the 2K people I follow, put out some good stuff and some so so stuff. The increased variety of content has been helpful to me in deciding what to blog about.

Penny and Doug said...

Nice to hear from friends in CA!