Will the average surfer really become 'sophisticated'?

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

1) I must admit I find myself doing this way too often: I'm searching for something and usually just look at the top couple of posts, but I RARELY go to the second page (often I dont even look beyond the top 5 results (unless I'm really really interested in it).

I think in my subconscious mind I still associate the listing in the SERPs way too much with relevancy/quality...WAAAAY TOO MUCH..and I've been trying to understand how search technology works for the last 1 1/2 years.

If I haven't gotten beyond that point in 1.5 years (subconsciously) I would argue that the average surfer (who does not care about how search engine algorithms work, at all) might never get to a point where they'll stop associating the top 5 or so results with the highest quality/relevancy (and look at what pages 2 or 3 or even 4 might have to offer) and become really 'sophisticated' at searching (even though I've heard the length of queries has been rising a bit).

QUESTION:

If you're totally honest, how many times do you go to the second page / use vertical search / use a search engine other than Google to try to find what you want (if Google search couldn't satisfy you)?

(Knowing it can help me find what I need sometimes I try to get myself to do it and sometimes do it, but in general the 'go to google - search - look at the top 5 or so results - try another search - look at the top 5 results again - hm didn't find it really' process is still stuck in my head)

[Jazajay]

Your in a very thought provoking mood recently NewKid.

To be honest it depends on where I am and who the default search provider is. I've been around my mums a lot recently so I've been using Live a hell of a lot as that is her default search provider. I actually find what I want quite a lot and very rarely go to G when I use Live.

Maybe its the wording of my query as I know longer queries bring better results.

But if I'm at home my default is 100 search results per page anyway so I don't need to go to any other pages in the SERPs - but often find results that would have been on page 2 or 3 that I probably couldn't be arsed to look for if I didn't set it in the advanced settings.

Actually a study from Nielson has recently shown that every year you use the web you web sophistication drops by 0.8% per year.

Another study shows that teenagers are less web savy than, I think, adults over the age of 40 or it could be 30.

So if you started using the web as a baby, by the time you where 100 you would probably give up after loading up the internet any way.

Hum... I wonder if G has a back up plan :D

Jaz

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

100 results per page sounds like a nice idea, where/how do you do that? Is it something I'll find if I just give it a closer look..?

web sophistication dropping by 0.8% you use the web? I'd like to see that study. do you have a link, I couldnt find it?

[AussieWebmaster]

I am always surfing all the big three to see what is going on,,,, but that is not a normal search

[Jazajay]

Yeah no worries.
There are 2 ways to set the default SERP's per page. if you just want it to do it once -

Go to google.de click on Erweiterte Suche then set it in their, to the right of the top of the page in the blue header change that to 100.

If you would prefer to search with 100 searches by default go to Einstellungen and set it in thier it's about half way down the page. Then click Einstellungen speichern this should then set a cookie which allows you then to search with 100 SERPs per page by default.

The default is set to 10 Ergebnisse, just set it to 100 Ergebnisse. If that is 2 many just change it to 20,30 or 50 SERPs per page instead.

It's easily missed especially if you never go to G's home page.

English sites is the same go to google.co.uk|.com what ever click advanced settings just to the right of the input box
really small. In the uk version it is half way down that page.

To set it to default just click preferences and set it in thier.

To me it's really annoying as I delete my cookies at the end of every browser session to avoid session hijacking or cookie stealing so have change it every time I want to search.

Yeah the study is here. It's between 25-60 year olds though I must have missed that in the email I got.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/middle-aged-users.html

Sign up it's a good usability site. Neilson knows his stuff - unfortunately he doesn't apply it to his own site though. :)

But hay everyone's a critic these days.

Jaza

[Jazajay]

I am always surfing all the big three to see what is going on,,,, but that is not a normal search

Yeah I've looked into that. What do you use?
Every one that I have looked at looks like a bad BHO, and thus I don't want my internet sessions/keystrokes to monitored by it's creator.

Jaz

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

thanks for the explanation - so you know some German? or did you just click your way through?:-) I'm usually using google.com (set to English), though because in English I just find more results than in German (unless I search for a Germany-related topic of course!)

[Jazajay]

O sorry, no.
I thought your first language was German so it would have made a change from every one speaking english to you all the time. I've read too much about useability, and personalizing each experance depending on the users different personna's, recently.

I copied it straight from google.de TBH.

I did do German along with French, yeah cant speak any of that either, at GCSE but to be honest it was more of a doss subject, hope that makes sense, as I never really paid attention.

You can set google.de to return english results in the preferances though and then search using google.de's home page.

Jaz

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

Yeah my first language is German, but if I search for general topics I usually search in English, because there is just more stuff to be found