56% Rate the Search Engines They Use "Excellent" or "Very Good"

PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, May 9, 2000 - Leading marketing information provider The NPD Group, Inc. reports 82% of visitors find the information they are looking for at search engines most or all of the time. That is up from 77% in the fall of 1999. Similarly, overall opinion scores are on the rise, with 39% of search engine visitors rating their favorite site as "excellent" according to the most recent survey, up from 33% last fall. Forty-one percent of total visitors rate the guide they use as "much better" than other sites, up from 37% in the previous study. Mean loyalty and satisfaction scores also increased.

Users are true to their search engines even when their searches fail. After conducting an unsuccessful search, 77% of visitors said they would use the same search site to perform a different search instead of resorting to a different search engine. This number has remained flat over the past three surveys. Only nineteen percent said they would conduct the same search at a different site to get the information they sought. Four percent said they used "other" methods to find the information they needed after conducting an unsuccessful search.

"Search engine users become comfortable with 'their' search sites. NPD's data show they would rather tinker with unsuccessful searches to find information using their favorite search engine sites than visit alternate sites. Many users think every search engine will provide the same information, so they stick with the search sites they know. Search engines must keep this loyalty in mind when considering design and functional changes or risk losing their loyal visitors," Manuzza said.

Search engine users also demonstrate their loyalty in their willingness to recommend particular search engine sites to friends.

Using banner invitations posted on the 13 participating search engine sites during the first quarter of 2000, NPD attracted 33,148 qualified respondents for this study. Forty-five percent of respondents were male; 55% were female. Visitors who accepted the invitation to participate in the NPD survey were linked to the NPD survey site. Upon completion and submission of the survey, participants were returned to the search or portal site they were visiting before the survey.

The study was conducted on behalf of the following search engines, all NPD clients: