Pew Report Puts Search Engine Use Up

Want to feel absolutely cutting-edge?  Then here’s an interesting finding for you: Pew Internet reports that just 49 percent of Internet users perform a search on a typical day.  What’s more: this number represents "a new high."

Over 2,250 American adults responded to Pew’s survey in April and early May, so the discovery isn’t too easy to argue with.  As for other online activities, checking the news, checking the weather, researching a hobby, surfing for fun, and social networking all trail search.

Email is the one thing that’s more popular than search, with 60 percent of Internet users checking it on a typical day.  Leaving aside any astonishment at how many users seem to do nothing, this means search is only second to communicating with friends and relatives.

Taking that observation and returning to those low numbers, it’s apparent that the growth of Google (and even Yahoo and Microsoft) probably won’t finish for a long time yet.  The SEO industry as a whole is looking pretty safe, too.

A hat tip goes to Greg Sterling, and Pew Senior Research Fellow Deborah Fallows was in charge of the original project.  Now do some folks a favor and teach them what Google is.