Commentary

Real-Time Search Study Sheds Light On Consumer Use

Watch with a second hand

How many consumers know or care about real-time search? A study released this week from RTS engine Wowd indicates some ignorance: 52% had never heard of real-time search before taking the survey. Perhaps it's time the search industry steps up to the plate.

In 2001 the manufacturing industry started using a similar acronym, RTL, for the term real-time location systems. These systems tracked, in real time, the location of raw materials and finished goods through the supply chain. It took years to educate execs in retail stores and others on the importance of these systems.

The real benefits from RTS for advertisers and marketers will come as technology increases ad targeting accuracy and relevance, but the industry still has a long way to go.

In the Wowd study of 1,011 U.S. participants, 55% women and 45% men, 84% of respondents said they wanted one Web site where they could easily discover the latest news, trends and topics as they happen. These Web sites exist. Not only Wowd offers this information, but OneRiot, Google and Twitter. Reliable SEO founder David Harry points to Collecta, Crowdeye, as well as social sites and feeds like FriendFeed, Facebook, Stumble, and Delicious.

Meanwhile, only 55% of respondents thought results found through traditional search engines contained the latest information and content from the Web, compared with 16% who said no, and 29% who weren't sure. Maybe these numbers reflect feedback from consumers that RTS engines need to step up the marketing message in SEO and paid search ads.

When asked about the biggest problem with Internet search results, 35% said search engine query results are not accurate enough; 26% said too much spam; followed by "old data" at nearly 22%. There was a group who was satisfied: the 14% that said "nothing -- search works great." And almost 3% indicated "other."

Probably most telling were the write-in answers from survey participants who chose "other." Among them were "too many advertisements that don't apply," "commercially drive search results over relevancy," "spam and scam links and irrelevant topics," and "search engines that offer alternative keywords for likely misspellings often weed out the intended results."

Survey participants ranked Entertainment as the top topic searched on most often, followed by News, Technology, Health, Business, Deals, Science, Gaming, Sports, and Politics. When asked the importance of staying up to date on the latest news, trends and topics, only a quarter, roughly 26%, of the participants said it was "very important."

Bloggers and publishers might want to know that 33% of the participants said they find the "descriptive sentences" most important in evaluating search results, followed by "the headlines" at 32%. "The source," was chosen by almost 20%, and "time stamp and freshness," by 15%. And we all know the relevance of time stamps.

Those who use search engines and social sites daily know the importance of finding information in real time. Perhaps the search industry needs to do a better job at demonstrating the relevance and the important of real-time search, especially in time-sensitive situations.

Next story loading loading..