Monthly Archives: September 2005

When you do a search and are not satisfied with the results, what’s your next step?

8 out of 21 respondents said they try their searches on another engine when they don’t find what they want. But only 2 said that’s the only thing they do. Most people said they reformulate their query first, and then as a last resort go to another engine.

Here’s some examples:

*Alter the wording then use a different engine.
*Put different or varying words in search field (I rarely use a different search engine).
* Fine-tuning the query. I usually don’t go to another search engine until I’ve exhausted a number of possible key search words.

One respondent explained how, after unsuccessfully issuing a search on a search engine, they go directly to expert sites and look around for links to the sought-after information.

Another person said if he doesn’t find what he wants using a search engine that he’ll use a professional database (imagine that!).

It’s good that people reformulate their queries. But I’m curious to know what strategies people use other than quoting the search terms, or if they just keep hacking away hoping to find the magic keyword combination.

As to the people who don’t use other engines, or only use them as a last resort, that’s troubling. If I go to a video store and they don’t have a DVD I’m looking for, I don’t stop my search and assume it doesn’t exist. I’ll go to another store to find it. Or a book in a bookstore, or a shirt in a clothing store, etc. The same holds true for search engines.

When you do a search and are not satisfied with the results, what’s your next step?

The majority of respondents, 11 people, said they reformulate their query using the same engine. Most people do this by using quotes, but others use narrower terms. Some people wrote that they change their keywords, but I don’t know if that means narrower terms, broader terms, related terms, or what exactly.

Specific examples of what people wrote include the following:

* Refine the search, change key words, use/remove quotation marks.
* I narrow it by putting the words or phrases in quotes. Sometimes, I’ll choose a specific language or make sure I only get results in English (depending on what I’m looking for).
* I will usually try a different search with different words, perhaps a different order.
* Fine-tuning the query. I usually don’t go to another search engine until I’ve exhausted a number of possible key search words.
* Keep trying using different search phrases / narrow or expand the search, depending.

5 people specifically mention using quotes in their reformulation.

One person wrote this surprising response: This happens vary rarely. I suppose I just give up.

I’m not going to get all scientific about the demographics, but here’s a brief overview:

- None of the respondents have ever worked in the search industry.
- Most respondents are in their early to mid 30s.
- All respondents were college educated.
- 47% of the respondents have advanced degrees.
- 59% of the respondents live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Oh, and I sent the survey to about 30 people, and received 18 responses to my 3 survey questions.

UPDATE: I now have 20 responses.

Question #1: When you need to conduct a search, what are the most important factors for you in determining which search engine to use?

Relevancy was not really that big of a stated factor in the responses to this question. Only one respondent specifically used the word relevancy, and it was only one of the factors. Here’s their answer: “Accessibility, ease of use, and relevancy.”

Although this other response doesn’t specifically use the word relevancy, the unspoken meaning is relevancy:
“It is important that the results really reflect the issues I am looking for and do not come up with all kinds of results that just mention the key words as a side matter…”

One other response was specific in terms of the type of information being sought: “If I am searching for a particular item, like a product web site, movie trailer, or phone number, I value conveninece and accuracy.”

I think the main issue here is that perceived relevance is what’s important to a lot of users. They don’t spend much time or thought exploring various search engines beyond what they already know, and so the answers to this question were generally vague. There just really are not many factors that go into most people’s decision making process on this topc. Most people don’t decide to use a particular engine for a particular type of query. They just stick with the engine they know.

Question #1: When you need to conduct a search, what are the most important factors for you in determining which search engine to use?

I purposely didn’t ask for the names of search engines that people use, yet I found out the following:

6 people only use Google.
6 different people use Yahoo and/or Google.
2 people sometimes use Dogpile.
6 people did not mention a particular engine.

A lot of people didn’t really have a reason for why they use Google, for example:
“I have no technical criteria - I use google for one-stop shopping. Brand familiarity and nothing more.”
“I go to Google. I do not consider factors.”
“Uh, no real determinants, as I always use Google.”
“Honestly, I only use Google, and not for any particular factor, except that I simply don’t have time to compare
different search engines, so I go with the default.”

One of the Dogpile users gave this insightful response:
“…If, however, I’m not looking for a specific item, and instead am trying to conduct research, I often won’t know what it is I’m looking for until I’ve found it. For these types of searches I value search engines like dogpile.com that often provide less focused searches, but that often turn up some overlooked gems.”

One respondent, who did not mention any engine names, put this very telling line: “Whatever is on my screen.”