Are all Results on Search Engines Equal? A Surprising Journey Within the SERPs, Dominik Johnson, Search Engine Watch (Aug 31)
Search scene now includes web (Google, Bing, Yahoo), real time search (Twitter, OneRiot), large foreign language search (Baidu in China) - to name the big areas. This study examined the effectiveness of the search interface and search results.
Questions were from the point of view of online marketing.
* Are all results equal?
* Most engines have the same basic layout; however does a pixel change here and there make a difference?
* Are universal search type results on Bing and other engines as attractive as Google?
* Are trending topics a natural way to navigate the new breed of search engines?
* Do Baidu and Yandex have a design edge?
* Are moving/scrolling elements on the page effective?
It's unclear if they were successful at answering all of these - and I'm not sure of the value of evaluating placement of search engine logo, though placement of the AdBox is clear given the interest in advertising.
Posted by Gwen at August 31, 2010 09:05 PM