In May 2009 Microsoft launched a new search engine: Bing. Bing claims to help users find what they’re looking for more quickly and easily and to provide a richer search experience through a range of innovative features. User Centric, our partner in the UXalliance conducted a study to find out how this search engine compared to its main rival: Google. Eye tracking technology was used to study which elements attracted the attention of the users in both search engines.
About Eye tracking
Eye tracking is a technique that allows you to follow how the eyes move as it looks at an object (e.g. a page on a website). When a participant performs a task, the eye tracker will show what they are looking and for how long. This technique can help in answering some specific questions, such as checking whether brand elements (e.g. logos or banners) will be noticed and to see which elements are capturing the user’s attention.
Bing vs. Google
When comparing Bing to Google, this study found no real differences in the amount of attention given to the search results. Also the percentage of participants that looked at the sponsored links at the top of the results was the same.
Differences were found between the attention that sponsored links on the right side of the page received. A higher percentage of the participants using Bing looked at these links then they did when using Google (42% vs. 25%). An interesting additional observation was that the type of search influenced the time spend looking at these sponsored links.
Besides comparing features that were available in both search engines, three features that differentiated Bing from Google were also studied: Flyout menus, Refine categories and More sponsored links. To read the results of these features and to find out more on this eye tracking study you can read the full article on the User Centric website.
If you want to try out Bing for yourself, it’s best to use Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer. For some reason it seems to work better in IE then in let’s say Firefox or Google’s own Chrome…
Eye tracking at User Intelligence
Eye tracking can be a great research method, especially when combined with a usability test. Therefore, User Intelligence offers eye tracking services to her clients. To find out how eye tracking can help you, please visit our special eye tracking information page, or contact us.