Search or Email?

Posted on August 10, 2008

Which one do you do more frequently on a daily basis?

According to a new study, almost half of all Internet users use search engines on an average day, though I can’t imagine a day without searching or researching.Think I would have some sort of withdrawal symptoms if I went a whole day without searching out something.

Point though is that search is gaining momentum on mail as the most used app online.

Just six years ago, studies showed only about a third of users performed searches daily so that’s a pretty significant jump and simply shows the way we think and do things today. Of course, look at the available things to search now compared to six years ago.

So during that period, search grew almost 70% while email usage grew about 15%. Mail has been around like forever, so naturally it matured a lot quicker. Which leads us to ponder, what is it six years from now that will have gained a percentage of what we do online compared to today?

The other leading online activities on a day-to-day basis now are checking the news (40%) and the weather (30%).

The sheer popularity of Google since it went public amidst a media flurry, called greater attention to search and search relevancy. Also, so very many sites now are able to offer site specific searches. Certainly that also becomes a factor in usage.

Increasing economy of scale in storage media also contributes to greater availability of data to filter, meaning users recognize there is a greater possibility of finding what they want.

So now instead of looking at a bunch of stats and saying ‘go figure’, we just say ‘go search’…..you just might uncover interesting stories along the way.