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Pick a Word, Any Word
Stop the presses!
The average Google query now consists of 4 words and not 3! That’s up for the first time ever as of Q4 2007, from the long-time 3 word per query Google user average. [via beu blog]
That’s big news, indeed. What does this byte tell us? You can see this from a couple of angles:
- Users are getting savvier about creating refined search queries.
- Users are getting less tolerant of skimming through many pages of search results to get the information they seek.
Now ask the question: if the average search query on a mobile device is ten letters or two words (whichever comes first), isn’t it likely that results will be less refined or focused on mobile devices? Given the exceedingly limited screen real estate available to display those results, isn’t that lack of refinement implicated at least in part in the frustration of using a mobile device for search?
I gave a couple of presentations (in Helsinki and Tel Aviv) on this subject last year, and the data just keeps flowing in to back up the arguments I made then.
