Via Greg Linden, I came across the following experimental result from Google as to the importance of quickly returning results to users. The gist of the experiment is summed up in the abstract:
Experiments demonstrate that increasing web search latency 100 to 400 ms reduces the daily number of searches per user by 0.2% to 0.6%. Furthermore, users do fewer searches the longer they are exposed. For longer delays, the loss of searches persists for a time even after latency returns to previous levels.
Google therefore concludes that speed matters, that it is of utmost importance to return results as fast as possible, otherwise users will be less satisfied users. Less satisfied users, the metric assumes, means fewer queries.
I am not as immediately convinced. Sure, I have no doubt that the number of queries issued did drop as a result of latency increase. But can we immediately conclude, from the information contained within this report, that users were less satisfied with their overall search processes? The author writes: Continue reading…
Recent Comments