As many as 20 percent of respondents use four or more search engines, a British study reports.

By Lars Iselid, Internetbrus

According to a study from the British marketing company Harvest Digital only 24 percent of British searchers use only one search engine.

Surprisingly as many as 20 percent use four or more search engines. Only 22 percent reports that one search engine can supply all the information they need.

The respondents normally blames themselves for search failure. 36 percent claim that they fail because of the use incorrect keywords, and 32 percent argue that they were looking for information that was too specialized.

Only 8 percent blamed the search engine for their inability to find relevant web pages.

24 percent blamed the inclusion of high ranking text ads. It is not clear whether the interviewees believe it is possible to buy listings in the organic search results or whether they are referring to the sponsored listings.

As many as 68 percent of the respondents use more than two keywords in their queries. Of these 40 percent use three keywords.

They were also asked what they believed would help improve their searches.

50 percent argued that training with tests would be the best approach. 9 percent believed in using more than one search engine, while 5 percent would like to see better search engine features.

This may be interpreted to mean that they find the search engines good enough, but that their own user skills should be improved!

The study Experience matters – attitudes to search amongst experienced internet users can be ordered for free from Harvest Digital.

The study is based on interviews with 205 British internet users. They are all using internet for at least 10 hours a week, and have been online for at least three years.

This article was originally published in Internetbrus, a Swedish blog on search engines and Internet searching that has been online since early 2001. It is written for both searchers and educators.