For the study, Yahoo! and Hall & Partners surveyed 486 college students in August, and Greenberg Brand Strategy conducted in-depth interviews with 12 students. Researchers asked students to rate various information sources--including search, family and friends, and traditional media--on a five-point scale.

The findings, presented Tuesday in New York, included the conclusion that 81 percent of college students rated search engines as the best source of information; friends and family were rated best by 64 percent of students, while just 34 percent said traditional media was their best source of information. (The numbers add up to more than 100 because an information source was considered "best" if students placed it in the top two boxes on a five-point scale.)

Seventy-seven percent of college students also told researchers that keyword searches provide the most relevant information, compared to 64 percent of students who said the same about family and friends, and 34 percent who said that traditional media provided the most relevant information.

When it came to trustworthiness, search came in second to family and friends--but by a small margin. Sixty-five percent of students said that family and friends were the most credible source of information, but 63 percent said the same about search; only 35 percent rated traditional media as most credible.

Yahoo! Tuesday also released research about how expectant/new parents use search engines. The methodology involved surveying 486 expectant parents or parents of children under two years of age, and conducting in-depth interviews with 12 expectant/new parents.

When the parents were asked where they go for information, 73 percent said they used keyword searches. That was more than the number who said they turned to retail stores (53 percent), TV ads (39 percent), and newspapers (15 percent), but less than those who turned to friends and family (94 percent), baby books (88 percent), baby Web sites (86 percent), baby magazines (82 percent, and doctors and hospitals (79 percent).

Yahoo! also looked at the shopping behavior of new parents (using data gleaned from Compete's panel of 2 million consumers), and determined that they were particularly likely to shop online for toys, finance, and health/wellness information. New and expectant parents were 234 percent more likely to shop online for toys than the population at large; 87 percent more likely to do so for brokerage services; and 80 percent more likely to shop online for health-related services.

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