An analysis of user behaviors on the search engine results pages based on the demographic characteristics

Abstract

The purpose of this survey-based study is to make an analysis of search engine users' behaviors on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) based on the three demographic characteristics gender, age, and program studying. In this study, a questionnaire was designed with 12 closed-ended questions. Remaining questions other than the demographic characteristic related ones were about "tab", "advertisement", "spelling suggestion", "related query suggestion", "instant search suggestion", "video result", "image result", "pagination" and the amount of clicking results. The questionnaire was used and the data collected were analyzed with the descriptive statistics as well as the inferential statistics. 84.2% of the study population was reached. Some of the major results are as follows: Most of each demographic characteristic category (i.e. female, male, under-20, 20-24, above-24, English computer engineering, Turkish computer engineering, software engineering) have rarely or more click for tab, spelling suggestion, related query suggestion, instant search suggestion, video result, image result, and pagination. More than 50.0% of female category click advertisement rarely; however, for the others, 50.0% or more never click advertisement. For every demographic characteristic category, between 78.0% and 85.4% click 10 or fewer results. This study would be the first attempt with its complete content and design. Search engine providers and researchers would gain knowledge to user behaviors about the usage of the SERPs based on the demographic characteristics.