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Eye Tracking Questions Usefulness of Real Time Search Results

A few eye tracking studies have shown that users tend to ignore “real time” results in searches. There is quite a lot of eye tracking research that goes into the usability and effectiveness of one of the most popular websites, Google. But if new research is showing ineffective trends for real time results, it can’t be good news for Twitter, who recently made deals with both Google and Bing to allow them to index its content and display it within the search results.

Over a decade ago, a group of researchers asked their study subjects to watch a video of a group of people passing a ball around. Participants were asked to count the number of passes completed, and in paying such close attention to the ball being tossed around the room, they didn’t notice a woman wearing a gorilla suit in the background of the scene. Less than 10% of the participants reported seeing a gorilla in the scene, and that’s what interested researchers most. An interesting post on the Guardian’s blog compares real time search results to this gorilla phenomenon.

Real time results go by unnoticed just as this woman in the gorilla costume did in the video. The article cites blogger Dave Winer from Scripting News as saying that web users tend not to notice the results. He says it’s impossible to convey that much information in a short sentence or paragraph, and chances are it’s something you already know. When you’re looking for information, you want information you don’t have.

I suspect much of this has to do with “banner blindness,” the subconscious ignoring of certain advertisements that pop up as we’re searching the web. Sponsored ads and text ads are already separated into their own section, so should real time results be as well? Is it really effective to have them at the top of the search results, or does it do the reader a disservice? Time will tell, but I doubt that the always nimble Google will leave it as it is long enough to know exactly.

If you’re trying to up-to-the-moment information about a subject happening right now, say, a natural disaster or some similar breaking news, it makes sense that real time results would be something a web user is interested in. But if you’re looking for anything else, is it really necessary?

Take a look at the Guardian’s post – it has a few relevant links that make for an interesting read.

Why do we ignore ‘real-time’ results from Google search?

Eye Tracking Questions Usefulness of Real Time Search Results

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