WordTracker Keyword List

Why people search for stuff like yahoo.com or search engines?

[damlag]

Hi,
I've been looking at Wordtracker 200 keyword list for some time and decided to see your opinions.

Can someone please explain me, why da heck people search for things like yahoo.com, google.com any domain dot com?

Can't they just go and look at yahoo.com and what it has to offer? What people expect when typing such things?

[moltar]

Many unexperiences computer users may mistake search box with a place to enter the URL. I remember my mom used to do it all the time, before I explained it to her.

She would always go to Yahoo (even before google days), by typing in yahoo.com into the address bar, enter the address she wanted to visit in the search box and then click the appropriate result.

I am puzzled myself, but I've seen this happen.

[damlag]

Well, that's probably the only reasonable explanation - inexperienced users. When you said, actually I type the adress there by accident too, when my IE messes little bit. It just looked strange, so many people...

[moltar]

There are millions of internet users around the globe, even if less than 1% of them messes up, it all adds up during the course of one month and you get the stats :)

I use avant browser and the search bar is right next to the address bar. I admit that sometimes I enter the address into the search bar by accident too.

[lazydog]

1. I do it to check how many pages of my site are in the yahoo/google index ;-).
2. I also put in my competitors' url to check how many pages they got in the index.
3. When someone asks for a link exchange, I do it again.

Saurabh.

[MatthewHSE]

I was once slightly involved in the sale of a website. The people purchasing it didn't know much about the Internet and belonged to the category who believe "Google is the Internet" and you have to search for a web address before you can go there. Before the purchase, they tried to visit the site and it didn't show up. They thought something was wrong with the site (and actually it obviously did have problems if it didn't come up for its own name - but they thought the site just didn't exist).

[adfree]

I know someone who worked for a company with the word Internet in their domain.

One day he was called by a lady who might have had difficulties with the ISP connect. She calls the guy asking:

"The Internet isn't working"

Answer: "M'am, we are xxInternet.com, I can't help you with your Internet access..."

Lady: "Aren't you the folks that run the Internet then?"

[sem4u]

damlag - this has been going on for years and it always amuses me / worries me...

Some people think that the Yahoo/MSN etc. search box is where you enter the URL.

It reminds me of a call to a tech support line:

Lady: "I need to download the internet?"

Tech: "What all of it?"

Lady: "That's what my son said..."

Tech: "You want all 10 billion pages then....?"

:)

[ronin]

I heard something similar from a friend of mine in Moscow who was approached by an old man during a trip to Uzbekistan a few years ago.

The old man told him that he had heard about the internet and was very interested in it, but that there was nowhere nearby to access it - so when my friend got back to Moscow could he put it on a 3.5" diskette and post it to him?

[rbarker]

domain dot com?

That's the one that scares me. People actually typing in domain dot com. Go to O's search term suggestion tool and type in "dot com." Very scary.