Poor People Use Yahoo, Those Better Off Use Google

Duncan Riley

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New data released by Hitwise yesterday shows that the difference between those using Yahoo and Google can be shown by the wealth of each user.

The graph right demonstrates “Online Representation” based on demographic types. The Y axis represents Yahoo, the X axis Google, with the higher the number, the more that particular group of users uses each service. Yahoo is strong in “struggling societies,” “blue collar backbone,” and “remote America,” where as Google obtains higher use in “small town contentment,” “affluent suburbia,” and “upscale America.” The size of each circle represents how many in each group have spent $500+ online.

The differences between the groups aren’t great, but the results do go some way in explaining the Yahoo conundrum. Although a distance second in search, Yahoo has remained the number one traffic destination online ahead of Google, so you’d think with more traffic Yahoo would convert that traffic into similar returns to Google. But alas we know that not to be the case, and that would appear in part to be related to people using Yahoo not spending as much online and being in poorer demographic categories than Google users, providing a lower return per user.

Marketers Shifting Budget to Online User Experience

Website user experience is becoming the major focal point for marketers in an increasingly competitive digital environment, according to research from E-consultancy and behavioral research consultancy Bunnyfoot, reports MarketingCharts. The Usability and User Experience Report 2007 found that organizations, on average, are spending 13 percent of their website design budgets on usability; moreover, it found they are spending 9 percent of their ongoing website maintenance budget on usability. Some 72 percent of UK organizations are planning to increase their usability budget over the next 12 months - a greater percentage* than for any other area of digital marketing, E-consultancy said. The more than 700 internet marketers who took part in the research rated Amazon, the BBC and Google as the best websites for user experience. According to the report, the biggest benefits of usability investment are… Improved perceptions of brand Increased conversion rates Greater customer loyalty and retention These were the top six benefits of usability, based on the number of company respondents who said they had been a "major benefit": Improved perceptions of brand (54 percent) Increased conversion rates (53 percent) Greater customer loyalty and retention (46 percent) Increased customer advocacy (38 percent) Increased traffic (36 percent) Improved search rankings (33 percent) The research also found that time pressure to get things done was the biggest barrier in the way of providing the best possible user experience: Some 56 percent of online marketers said this was one of the three biggest problems. The next-biggest barriers cited by internet marketers were lack of internal resource (45 percent), lack of budget (37 percent) and company culture / politics (35 percent). MarketingCharts provides more data and charts from the study. * According to E-consultancy research, these are the percentages of U.K. organizations planning to raise their budgets in other areas of digital marketing: SEO (62 percent); paid search (60 percent); email (52 percent); affiliate marketing (40 percent); online display advertising (34 percent); mobile (20 percent) (Source: E-consultancy / Neutralize U.K. Search Engine Marketing Report 2007)