A majority of Americans are spending more time searching for services online today than five years ago — and they’re frustrated about it, according to a new survey.
Why we care. Search engines are supposed to help people find information they want or need. This survey indicates that subpar search engine results and experiences may be failing to help users accomplish tasks, frustrating them.
Search engine frustration. Respondents were asked which part of the process of searching for services online was most frustrating to them. The top three:
My reaction: These are all problems that Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT and other answer engines will someday (soon?) be in a position to solve. However, the full promise of generative AI in search has not been realized.
More searching. A majority of respondents said they look through more search results compared to five years ago:
A majority of respondents also said they spend more time searching when looking for services online:
My reaction: Users have been increasingly frustrated by Google’s search quality – and this is further confirmation that we’re not imagining it – despite Google telling us people love AI Overviews and Search results. Google told us Search usage is increasing due to AI Overviews – but is that because they are researching more deeply or because they can’t find the right answers?
Low PPC ad relevance. Only 12% of respondents said search ads were relevant to them. Yes, PPC ads just barely beat out radio at 10% in this survey.
My reaction: I’m shocked that television is number one, though I’m less surprised to see that multiple social platforms rank higher right now – especially in light of more users using social for search and discovery, perhaps due to a growing frustration with ads on search results.
What else. On the SERPs, 35% of respondents said they skip (I assume scroll past) ads to go to the website (organic) results. Also:
Less surprising. Other findings of note:
But. It’s also entirely possible that some, or many, of the survey respondents aren’t the most technologically savvy.
About the data. The survey of 1,000 U.S. adults was designed to ensure a national representation in terms of gender, age and region. It was conducted in late February by Scorpion, a provider of digital marketing and technology solutions, in partnership with Dynata, an independent market research company.