Rowan's Future of Choice

Web decisions

The non-profit Pew Internet & American Life Project  just released the findings from its second Internet usage survey. I found much of the data hard to believe, such as "Just 15% said they felt they sometimes felt overwhelmed by the amount of information they had," and "Just 5% said they encountered bad information in the course of carrying out their online research." I expected these numbers to be much higher.

Wow. I've got to get me some of their internets!

During my time at PwC I learned the importance of survey methodology. I looked at Pew's methodology and found the following, which may have something to do with the findings:

"In each contacted household [by phone], interviewers asked to speak with the youngest male currently at home. If no male was available, interviewers asked to speak with the oldest female at home. This systematic respondent selection technique has been shown to produce samples that closely mirror the population in terms of age and gender."

I hope future surveys will include the quality and impact of Internet-supported decisions.

Pew Findings

Not asking for help

The average Internet search query is 2.3 words. These couple of words say more about what we are looking for, than about what is available.

My little experiment hints that we take our decisions personally; we like to go it alone.

Not about search

With Google's rising star and the proliferation of other ways to get information, it is finding stuff that really matters. Then of course, acting on it.

Maybe the category should be called Find.

New information is better information

I often include the current year or even the date/month/year in my Google searches. I am biased toward new information. This does not always work.

So much for the wisdom of the ages.