Forum Moderators: bakedjake
1 2377 yahoo
2 2098 hotmail.com
3 2032 jokes
4 2027 hotmail
5 1895 yahoo.com
6 1862 ebay
7 1800 google
8 1690 lyrics
9 1543 Attorney/Legal
10 1470 www.hotmail.com
My Quesiton: Does the average user not realize that they can type 'yahoo.com' or 'hotmail.com' into the address bar? Do they believe they need a search engine? And why are they searching for yahoo and google if they're using Metacrawler or Dogpile?
I have no real motive for asking this, just thought these were curious stats and thought I'd start a dialogue :)
Y'see, most search engines automatically switch the focus (where the cursor goes) into the search box. So, if the person were intending to type into the location bar, and being an average user, they look at their fingers while typing, well they have been fooled by the browser behaviour, not by anything else.
Having watched an awful lot of average users online, I still believe that my theory is correct. They do know the address, and they do know where to type it, but simply aren't used to the fact that a browser switches the focus area in ways that most windows programs do not.
Recent figures still show that the average UK user spends less than 10 hours per month online (which many of us clock-up each day). The most popular online activity is still e-mail, meaning that those same average users often do nothing more online than check their email in an evening. The second most popular activity is search.
If anyone has any suggestions it would be welcome.
Fake up a "Search box" and "results page" that are actually scripts runnings off your server, and have the "AskJeeves" SERP return results crammed with your sites. It might not be ethical, but anyone who knows enough to spot the switch isn't using the search box, are they?
[ask.co.uk...]
It befuddles me to watch them use the search box on Amazon to try to find something on the web. A URL may be entered in any open text field that will accept it.
With clients, many of the better known brands particularly those catering to a very upscale audience with half a mil to drop on a house are found through search engines by variations of the company URL or name. It doesn't matter what engine. They have some decent rankings here and there but the overwhelming majority of people that arrive via search engine type the URL into a search box.
People don't care how the web works, whatever they can do to get where they want to go is just fine.
BK may have hit the nail on the head earlier in this thread. That sounds like a likely phenomena - the cursor focus being switched to the search box.
I agree, an excellent point. Yet I think it would only account for a small, though significant, percentage. 10% perhaps?
>It befuddles me to watch them
You're too kind. Pains me to watch them would be more accurate.
NFFC - suggestion was implemented last month.
TallTroll - Sorry too unethical for me.
I also posted a big banner ad for my main home use product on top of the page which generates a few more hits.
Anyway back to the discussion - it is amazing how your reputation as a guru can spread if you educate your contacts a little (either that or change their homepage when they are not looking :) )
I have had a client of mine go from a freeserve homepage user to a Google user, with a broadband home connection who supplies us all his copy on template web pages ready for optimisation, in three months.
There are many people out there who just need a little education to become sophisticated web users. (Hmmm - thinks another neat little money making scheme 'Become a web guru in three easy lessons' get the pricing right and there could be something in that one.)
But then
>> it is amazing how your reputation as a guru can spread if you ... change their homepage when they are not looking
Sheesh!
Edited for comedy effect ;)
and I haven't got as far as doing automatic make this page your homepage stuff yet like some unscrupulous sites out there.
I think you are thinking with an intelligent user's mind. However, most of the users out there...whom we call as the average user...are not intelligent. Most of them are new to the concept of Internet search. Few of them know that there is something like an "Address Bar", where addresses are to be typed.
Thus, for such users, if they want to access yahoo.com, all that they know is that they want to use services from this place called Yahoo on the Net and there is something related with Yahoo called "yahoo.com" (they dunno its the URL or it goes in the address bar). So they type in such searches (for yahoo.com) in search engines.
Your next question....why are they using MetaCrawler/DogPile if they are searching for yahoo/google? Well, i think that for novices, use of search engines works by word of mouth. Its another thing that they want to search for yahoo, but then friends have told them that DogPile combines the results of multiple sites. Hence they may be opting for it.
Of course, I know that the speculations I mentioned above can be true only if people are very dumb....but believe me my friend, the eaverage expertise of people is just that....
i (a better than average user) use it many a times a day this way because I haven't had the time to organise my bookmarks.
think about this:
1.search engines have become too good and fast.
2.it is a pain to cut/replace portion of the url in the location bar in most browsers.
(i know just typing the domain alone would be sufficient - but doesn't cater to all).
i type '<my city> library' gets me the library page at top faster than i would locate on my bookmark menus. why would i ever bookmark it again?
Black_Knight's revelation, IMHO accounts for quite a few of those domain searches. I know I've done it dozens of times myself.
Also, when a browswer defaults on not finding a domain, and gives you an MSN or Yahoo SERP, does that count as a saerch also? I imagine there are lots of those.
My question to the forum, is know that we know how silly, inept, or unconcerned a MAJORITY of users are, how do we use this? How do we best make the users experience sooo simple that they can't screw up, and leave an empty shopping cart.
Seems she'd somehow clicked it off (accidentally) months back and didn't realize she could get it back. So everytime she wanted to go to another site that wasn't in her bookmarks/favourites, she just typed the address or keyword into the search box on her homepage.
I restored the address bar for her. I wonder how many other maimed browsers are out there, though!
I think you have nailed it right there! Or to put it another way, to have a successful site then everything needs to be right. I think design in particular will play an increasing important role in the decision making process of users. Superficial as it may be, how something looks is important, whether you are buying car or frequenting a web site.
I still feel that functionality is the most critical element, after all a great looking car still needs to start up in the morning. Simplicity is the key, just look to Google for the potential of this approach.
Now when we design a new site we use a "wire frame" model, designing the site at it's most basic level, making sure the users can get to where they [or we] want to go. Only after this process do we pour on a little eye candy, rendering if you like.
Apart from some basis CSS everything is vanilla HTML, no frames, no DHTML and no JavaScript without an alternative for non-JS users.
To me "dumbing up" means treating the user with respect, giving them a site that is both pleasing to the eye and to the mind. Language plays a part too [this may be a cultural bias] seeing something like "this software will change your life!" is so obviously false then why should I trust the money back guarantee!
If you are looking for one of the best examples of a well designed site, good functionality and that treats it's users as intelligent net citizens....you are already there.
>Search Trends and the Average User
No such thing as the average user, just a lot of [big]big[/big] niches to aim at. imho
I believe simplicity, logic and eye appeal are three of the most basic requirements of web design.
There are many, many users out there in the upper (my) age bracket who have only recently attempted to use computers. The majority of my customers fit into this category ... and they are buyers with big bucks to spend!
It is not that the average user is dumb or unwilling to learn ... it is that they have never had any training in computer technologies (we never had them in school) and they have worked most (if not all) of their adult lives without them. Many have recently bought computers on a whim, because they felt left out. But ... they have to teach themslves how to use them. Four years ago, I didn't own a computer, and the extent of my use of them in the workplace was limited to e:mail and word pocessing. Now I am building web sites ... "almost" on my own! (Thanks to WmW!)
I believe it is the responsibility of the search engines to teach their customers how to use thier services ... without all the computer jargon attached. If you don't know a language, how are you supposed to understand directions written in that language?
Don't tell an end user to "type the URL in the location box" ... they don't know what a URL is or where the location box is!!! A simple statement at the top of the page intended for new users would solve a lot of the problems that exist today. Something like:
"New to computers and searching the internet? Click here for diagram and explanation on how to use our search facility".
There should be very basic and clearly written instructions in order to bring non-computer types up to speed. Once you know how things are done, it seems remarkably easy ... but until you figure it out, it can be very difficult to know what to do and how to do it.
Not many people can assemble a 12 speed bicycle properly without instructions (although many men try) ... and for those who do attempt it, how many (seemingly unecessary) parts are left over and how many times do they have to take it apart and put it back together again until they get it right?
Webmasters need to treat their users with respect and take into account of whom their customer base is comprised. Obviously, if designing a site which sells computer software, then one can assume many users know how a web site works. However, when selling SEO, vacations, bicycles, underwear or even a search engine ... you can't make the same assumptions. Design with simplicity, logic and eye appeal and give the user clear instructions how to use the site.
If the serch engines used this approach, you wouldn't see yahoo.com as #1 in Metacrawler/Dogpile top 10 searches! What that tells me is that they have failed to provide basic information to their users ... and that is reflected in their own usage stats.
Watch what your users do (logs etc) then make it easy for them to do it.
For instance, use click streams to find the most popular routes through your site, then after one or two clicks you can guess where a user is likely to be going and automatically populate a prominent portion of your navigation that says 'Click for [Insert link to best guess]'.
VCRs still have the 'set timer to record a program' feature buried under several layers of menus. They NEED a big button with a picture of a clock on it, and the words 'Record Timer', or similar, beneath it.
But that would be too risky, wouldn't it? Who would buy a product that lets you do what you need to do? Madness I tell ya!
See your StickyMail at top of page:)
>For instance, use click streams to find the most popular routes through your site, then after one or two clicks you can guess where a user is likely to be going
Alternatively, decide where you want them to go and lead them there. In general, the more savvy the user the busier they are, dumb up and you give the spenders an easy way to part with their cash.
(TallTroll) There are many people out there who just need a little education to become sophisticated web users.
what really grinds me is that once they know a little bit (thanks to the many internet magazines on the market) they realise they can build their own websites for free with frontpage. then they come to people like me to host their sites for them. ok, so i make money out of these idiots, but they cause endless problems.
every time they get a fault with their site, it's our fault. when they don't know how to do something (ie, form to mail script) they expect us to do it for them for free. everything on the internet is free - their magazines say so. it goes on and on and on.
i suppose you could say i'm an advocate of regulation and standardisation on the internet. the whole thing has been put together in a haphazard fashion and users are left to "fend for themselves". knowledge is gained partly through experience and partly through luck. regulating and standardising the internet can only make things easier for the user.
regulation is coming slowly from the EU and the USA in terms of internet trading laws (eu distance selling directive), web design laws (section 508), standardisation is coming slowly in the form of browsers, web servers, search engines, credit card payment facilities etc. unfortunately, progress in both regulation and standardisation is slow, and standardisation is most likely to happen without being forced by regulation.
until then, it's just a game of luck for most of us. we can dumb down (as NFFC suggests) and earn some easy money out of the less internet savvy users. or if you want slightly more intelligent and more experienced customers you could "dumb up" to keep the less savvy users out.
my web hosting site has been "dumbed up" in that signing up is not obvious to the less internet savvy user. ok, so sales have dropped by 50% in the last few months, but support is almost zero for customers that have passed the "internet IQ test" on my sign up forms. money comes in and i do absolutely nothing. what could be easier?
My father believes he has to use whatever homepage the browser starts off in to find the site he's looking for. I've watched him type in yahoo.com into an excite search box and even after explaining it to him he continues to do so. I even had to drive by his house and change t@±#öomepage back after some site changed it on lim. lol.
There are just some people who should not be on the internet!
I don't know if my blood pressure could take it. :)
Australian Internet users mature from surfersThey've now migrated or matured from general surfing habits to one where they're actually using the Internet for real purposes which will save them time and effort
Source [thewest.com.au]
If my clients were as bad as my parents about navigating and searching the internet I'd quit this business forever within the hour.
It gives you a pretty good insight as to the IQ of people on the net, though.
My dad pokes his computer with a stick just enough to accidentally find himself someplace - and if he doesn't end up throwing a #@!$% fit because the text is too small or some other idiotic thing - sometimes he pulls out the credit card and spends some real money at whatever site it was he found. So there you go - these people DO buy things. They just make it a pain for developers (and their own kids who might happen to be developers).
I have a site for my son's band. Band's name is a440 but the site's name is a440zone.com. Guess what people have put in search engines to look for it - yup..a440zone.com. Which means they had to have know the exact address of the site before searching for it. One person kept doing it that way every time he accessed the site for the longest time. It was always msn search, so I figure he had that set as his home page and though the search engine was the address bar or something.
