Another new piece of research on the role of display advertising has indicated that it has a significant impact on search activity. The survey by US company Specific Media tracked over 60 advertising campaigns to take averages that demonstrated a direct correlation between display advertising and search. It found that consumers exposed to display advertising were more likely to search for brand terms (such as an automotive manufacturer), and segment terms (such as a type of vehicle), than unexposed consumers.

There's perhaps no great surprise there, as brand awareness will drive user behaviour in many cases, and the study shows that display advertising has a direct impact on both paid and organic searches and clicks. However, it's another piece of research that supports the role of an integrated marketing campaign, both online and offline, although the value of the additional traffic based on the extra spend would need to be assessed by each advertiser.

Media Week has just published the results of some new research that confirms previous figures that show search is the second-most popular activity on the Internet after email. Data compiled by Pew in the US show that, in terms of online behaviour, the use of search engines has become a primary activity, with 49% conducting web searches every day, coming second to email which 60% of users access every day.

These figures have grown significantly since 2002, when just a third of users searched every day and the percentage of 'at-least-once-a-day searchers' soared by 69% over the past six years. During the same period, the percentage of users checking email every day climbed just 8 points, from 52% to 60%. Other daily activities were visiting news sites (39%) and weather sites (30%). However, despite the huge numbers of users joining the social networking trend, the Pew research showed that only 13% of web users log onto those sites every day.

The report identifies three core reasons for search’s prominence in average users’ lives: accessibility, speed and relevance. Search is now more prevalent on content websites and with a greater mass of information available online, as well as the prominence of Google, search has become more necessary and available to users, who also have better awareness and familiarity with the web than 6 years ago. In addition, with around 55% of Americans using a broadband connection to access the Web, search has become a quicker starting point to find information, products or services online.

A report by The New York Times claims that research undertaken over recent months by Piper Jaffray in the US has uncovered apparent ways that Google is now testing behavioural targeting for its PPC adverts. By using the huge amount of data that has been collected on search activity and patterns in the past, Google may be starting to display different adverts to people based on their previous search activity - so that the example given indicates that if a searcher looks for “scuba,” then something else, and then “vacations" could pull up ads for diving trips.

It's no secret that Google is using it's massive source of data to understand search activity and to target activity in different ways, such as through the personalised iGoogle tool and also the likely development with banner advertising that followed the acquisition of DoubleClick last year. Some of this data collection is using 'cookies', which are small files attached to web actions from individual users.

Google had changed its privacy policy several years ago and indicated to users that it might record personal information about them for reasons that included “the display of customized content and advertising.” In 2007 Google also started looking at the immediately previous search when considering the display of PPC ads although Google did not need to use cookies for this because web browsers report the address of the previous site visited to the current site being visited and in the case of a search, that address contains the search terms.

This type of development in search targeting or behavioural targeting is becoming one of the main areas where the search engines will be competing to gain market advantage over the next few years and to improve the targeting services being offered to advertisers. Google, Yahoo! and MSN are all looking at tackling this issue with different approaches, although all of which are likely to raise privacy concerns, including possible legal cases in the future depending on the methods being used. However, it also should mean better relevancy for both searcher and advertiser if the balance between targeting and privacy can be achieved.

Google has recently announced some additions to their Google Trends tool which includes the option to now download the stats into a spreadsheet. Google Trends can be a useful tool to look at how different search terms or phrases may have been used over time, as well as by geographic area or language.

You need to have a Google Account to get access to the full data from this tool, but once in you can view trends by individual terms or you can compare two terms together. Data is scaled to fit the comparative charts, but it helps to provide seasonal usage of terms, or the market responses to particular news stories or other events that may drive search activity. With the new option to download the data into a spreadsheet format it provide new ways to analyse the data for your particular business needs.

The Google Webmaster blog has also just announced the addition of an extra layer to the Google Trends data which is still in development phase but enables users to view the activity on popular websites based on the way that the number of unique visitors has changed over the last 12 months, the countries where the site/s are most popular, the top related sites and search terms used. For example, a search for Amazon shows the different visitor trends between countries and the high traffic spikes each year prior to Christmas where the site has a particularly strong presence, such as the US and UK.

The Yahoo! Search Marketing blog comments on some of the recent results that emerged from research conducted by JupiterResearch for iProspect in the US (which we reported on last month). The 2 tables shown in the blog entry illustrate how search behaviour has changed over the past 6 years with users apparently becoming more impatient.

For example, in answer to the question of how many results users tend to look at before clicking on a link, 16% in 2002 said 'just a few' whereas in 2008 that figure had increased to 27%. The same figures for those scanning the whole of the first page has also changed from 32% six years ago to 41% this year. These figures also imply that 68% of searchers will tend to click on one or more results within the first page in 2008, compared to 48% in 2002.

A second question, which asked searchers at which point they revised their search query or tried another search engines if they didn't find what they were looking for, shows that in 2002 14% would do this after reviewing just a few results, compared to 23% this year. Those who revised their search after reviewing the first page of results rose from 14% in 2002 to 26% in 2008.

These results do show an interesting trend which may indicate the impatience of searchers, or an improved level of searching skill using more key terms to find a specific result. It can also indicate the improved relevancy of results (and probably more people now using Google) as well as the higher number of optimised sites appearing in the search results and, through highlighted content, appearing to give users the results they are looking for.

Of course the Yahoo! article encourages website owners to target their paid search advertising to create relevant rankings for users and to get first page positions to attract the majority of the search traffic. It also recommends focusing optimisation efforts on all aspects of the 'blended' search results that are now being served up - such as news stories, video, images and local business listings - to ensure that all opportunities are being taken for the website to put itself infront of relevant searchers.