People Actually Need A Search Engine to Find MySpace

Comments

People are conditioned like lab rats to use the little search box in their browser for EVERYTHING. Some won't go to the john without asking Google if they should hold it or not.

It's ridiculous and I'm told that a highly searched term on Yahoo is google and vice versa.

Do you know who's making amount of money off of this conditioned response to online navigation? All of the search engines. A number of my clients spend 70-80% of their search marketing spend on their brand terms.

The stats probably include the search queries derived from typing keywords into the address bar (which automatically send you to the first search engine result). And they probably are also skewed by all the people who use keywords to search for things on other sites, like "myspace heather soandso" to find a friend's website.

I'm guilty of this. I mostly use either Camino or OmniWeb and both those apps autocomplete URLs.. so if I type "myspace" it'll go to www.myspace.com. But sometimes when I'm a guest on someone's computer I'll type in "myspace" I'll get some MSN search results page. (Is this default IE behavior?)

I've also noticed that sometimes if people have, say, Google set up as their home page it'll take the focus. So if I'll think I'm typing in the address bar when in fact it's lost focus.

There's no place like 127.0.0.1.

There are a few good reasons to search for well-known sites. From the top of my head, I can think of three:

1. Corporate browsing. A company I used to work for used a browser with the address field disabled, and only with a series of work-related bookmarks. We soon found a way to load a Google search box, which allowed us to go elsewhere.

2. Semi-anonymous browsing. There are certain Web sites I would prefer other users of my computer didn't know about. Instead have the address bar remember them, typing them into Google does the trick. MySpace would fall into this category if I ever went there.

3. Auto-complete. With Firefox 2, the Google search box has an auto complete feature, which I find very helpful especially when I try to find a page that I'm not sure how to spell correctly (heard about it in a radio commercial, for example).

many many web users I observe do not know the difference between the Yahoo search box and the web browser's Address Bar... hence they 'search' for destination

I think people search for these terms to find out more info on them. For instance, how many parents do you think wanted to learn more about myspace than just going to the website itself. Add to that people doing any kind of personal or professional research on such phenomenoms as those you mentioned, that probably bumps up the #s.

And yes, there are the people who are just idiots too.

NO, PEOPLE ARE NOT IDIOTS. I do it to make sure I'm getting to the right site and not to some scam site. I always worry that if I type "www.citibanj.com" by accident, I might stumble upon a site that looks like the real thing, and I will inadvertantly give away the user name and password of my bank account to some crooks in Nigeria. By typing in a search field, I am guaranteed that the first result is the official site. (Yes, I know about the encryption icon and https but these scammers are getting more sophisticated by the day) Oh, and sometimes a mistyped URL gets you to a site that has tons of popups and other annoying web treats, or worse.

NO, PEOPLE ARE NOT IDIOTS. I do it to make sure I'm getting to the right site and not to some scam site. I always worry that if I type "www.citibanj.com" by accident, I might stumble upon a site that looks like the real thing, and I will inadvertantly give away the user name and password of my bank account to some crooks in Nigeria. By typing in a search field, I am guaranteed that the first result is the official site. (Yes, I know about the encryption icon and https but these scammers are getting more sophisticated by the day) Oh, and sometimes a mistyped URL gets you to a site that has tons of popups and other annoying web treats, or worse.

well, a lot of people are idiots too...

Call me really really super lazy, but sometimes I'd rather just use the search field to type in the page I want (if its not my homepage) and then click on the site itself, than have to go through the hassle of typing what I want in the Adress Bar, will all the drop-down suggestions and whatnot. Personally, I think the adress bar is overrated.

Call me really really super lazy, but sometimes I'd rather just use the search field to type in the page I want (if its not my homepage) and then click on the site itself, than have to go through the hassle of typing what I want in the Adress Bar, will all the drop-down suggestions and whatnot. Personally, I think the adress bar is overrated.

Call me really really super lazy, but sometimes I'd rather just use the search field to type in the page I want (if its not my homepage) and then click on the site itself, than have to go through the hassle of typing what I want in the Adress Bar, will all the drop-down suggestions and whatnot. It seems like its less work and its quicker, for some reason. I might be wrong. But personally, I think the adress bar is overrated.

Call me really really super lazy, but sometimes I'd rather just use the search field to type in the page I want (if its not my homepage) and then click on the site itself, than have to go through the hassle of typing what I want in the Adress Bar, will all the drop-down suggestions and whatnot. It seems like its less work and its quicker, for some reason. I might be wrong. But personally, I think the adress bar is overrated.

I've got to say I'm guilty of this, unintentionally, of course!

Normally when I open up to the Yahoo homepage, I click into the address bar and start typing. Sometimes, this type is unwittingly placed in the search bar and before I even realize what I am doing, I am "searching" for myspace. I get frustrated because it takes me 3x longer to get there than it normally would. Myspace get's bigger "searched for" numbers, and yahoo gets more use as a search engine. It's all a big sham I tell you - just a misplaced cursor.

Surely some of these people are looking for information ABOUT the sites rather than just trying to navigate to the site itself.

First, I like AdRANTS and they have received some well deserved props their fine work. However, I am surprised that an advertising Blog negates the consumer as an Internet user with such an obtuse and blanket statement. Just as Hitwise is making some money with the so-called "nonsense" so are many highly successfully search marketers and usability experts. Furthermore, people choosing to navigate the Web using a search engine rather than an address bar has no doubt been a major contributing factor to many of the major search-engines' successes. Lastly, if this behavior is conditioned or chosen, it is the way a majority of people are using to navigate the Web. I would bet that a large number of consumers are also using this method, albeit on a smaller scale via internal site searches, to navigate and purchase on many e-commerce sites. Put a search box on your next e-mail campaign and see how many sales that generates versus the traditional product offerings.

First, I like AdRANTS and they have received some well deserved props their fine work. However, I am surprised that an advertising Blog negates the consumer as an Internet user with such an obtuse and blanket statement. Just as Hitwise is making some money with the so-called "nonsense" so are many highly successfully search marketers and usability experts. Furthermore, people choosing to navigate the Web using a search engine rather than an address bar has no doubt been a major contributing factor to many of the major search-engines' successes. Lastly, if this behavior is conditioned or chosen, it is the way a majority of people are using to navigate the Web. I would bet that a large number of consumers are also using this method, albeit on a smaller scale via internal site searches, to navigate and purchase on many e-commerce sites. Put a search box on your next e-mail campaign and see how many sales that generates versus the traditional product offerings.

Did noone consider the fact that most people are looking for Myspace resource sites (layouts, graphics etc.) or people who have heard the term but don't yet know about Myspace google it to find out what it is (although they'd be more wise to head to wikipedia directly instead of clicking on it when it's the second highest link)

Josh

does this work