New! Sign up for our free email newsletter.
Science News
from research organizations

Users Consistently Trust Higher Positioned Results In Google Searches

Date:
August 22, 2007
Source:
Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Summary:
An eye tracking experiment revealed that college student Internet users have an inherent trust in Google's ability to rank results by their true relevance to the query. When participants selected a link from Google's result pages, their decisions were strongly biased towards links higher in position, even if that content was less relevant to the search query.
Share:
FULL STORY

An eye tracking experiment published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication revealed that college student internet users have an inherent trust in Google's ability to rank results by their true relevance to the query. When participants selected a link from Google's result pages, their decisions were strongly biased towards links higher in position, even if that content was less relevant to the search query.

“Despite the popularity of search engines, most users are not aware of how they work and know little about the implications of their algorithms,” says study author Bing Pan. “When websites rank highly in a search engine, they might not be authoritative, unbiased or trustworthy.”

According to Pan, this has important long term implications for search engine results, as this type of use, in turn, affects future rankings. “The way college students conduct online searches promotes a ‘rich-get-richer’ phenomenon, where popular sites get more hits regardless of relevance,” says Pan. “This further cements the site’s high rank, and makes it more difficult for lesser known sites to gain an audience.”

The author says users need to be aware that search engines have tremendous influence on what and how information is accessed. An effort on the part of search engine developers to provide users with information on how the algorithms function could help to raise user awareness.


Story Source:

Materials provided by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Cite This Page:

Blackwell Publishing Ltd.. "Users Consistently Trust Higher Positioned Results In Google Searches." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 22 August 2007. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070821153921.htm>.
Blackwell Publishing Ltd.. (2007, August 22). Users Consistently Trust Higher Positioned Results In Google Searches. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070821153921.htm
Blackwell Publishing Ltd.. "Users Consistently Trust Higher Positioned Results In Google Searches." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070821153921.htm (accessed March 28, 2024).

Explore More

from ScienceDaily

RELATED STORIES