According to a new research by the National Bureau of Economic Research, 33% of the Google users kept on using Bing after two weeks of testing it. This challenges the idea that Google dominates because it's the best option and shows that people keep on using Google because of habit instead of quality. Researchers from MIT, Stanford, and the University of Pennsylvania came together to understand why Google dominates 90% of the search market.
They surveyed 2,354 desktop users and found that people do not use other search engines because they think they are bad, some have default settings that favor Google, switching to other search engines feels like a hassle, and some say that Google has a data advantage. Google claims that it is dominating because it has better quality, but that's not true; it's just that users haven't tried any other options yet.
When the researchers paid users to use Bing for 2 weeks, 1 in 3 of the Google users kept using it afterwards, and 64% said that Bing was better than they expected. 59% also said that they have gotten used to Bing and said that its quality is better than Google's.
When users were asked to choose a search engine, Bing being the top choice only increased by 1.1%, which shows that people are just used to choosing the default search engine, ie, Google. But when people got stuck using Bung, they said that they liked it more, and some didn't even switch back to Google. If Bing had access to search data like Google, its click-through rates would increase from 23.5% to 24.8%. The EU requires Google to show a list of search engines to users, and it can boost Bing’s share by 1.3% if users do not try the other alternatives as well.
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They surveyed 2,354 desktop users and found that people do not use other search engines because they think they are bad, some have default settings that favor Google, switching to other search engines feels like a hassle, and some say that Google has a data advantage. Google claims that it is dominating because it has better quality, but that's not true; it's just that users haven't tried any other options yet.
When the researchers paid users to use Bing for 2 weeks, 1 in 3 of the Google users kept using it afterwards, and 64% said that Bing was better than they expected. 59% also said that they have gotten used to Bing and said that its quality is better than Google's.
When users were asked to choose a search engine, Bing being the top choice only increased by 1.1%, which shows that people are just used to choosing the default search engine, ie, Google. But when people got stuck using Bung, they said that they liked it more, and some didn't even switch back to Google. If Bing had access to search data like Google, its click-through rates would increase from 23.5% to 24.8%. The EU requires Google to show a list of search engines to users, and it can boost Bing’s share by 1.3% if users do not try the other alternatives as well.
Read next:
• Systrom Calls for AI to Prioritize Accuracy, Not Engagement, in Wake of Politeness Criticism
• TikTok Faces Heavy Fine for GDPR Breach, Must Halt Data Transfers to China if Non-Compliant
