Web rage runs fueled by futile searches
Sun Review March 17, 2001

Welcome to the frustrating World Wide Web, where it takes just thirty seconds of a bumpy information hunt to transform Net-loving clickaholics into raving lunatics, a survey has found. On average, so-called Web-rage is unleashed after twelve minutes of fruitless searching, although about seven percent of the 566 people surveyed by Roper Starch Worldwide (www.roper.com) say the tension starts mounting within three minutes.

The main culprit is information. The overwhelming deluge of information available online is actually driving some people offline, and back to phoning customer service or accessing other pre-cyber generation information resources.

At last count, the search engine Google (www.google.com) had indexed 1.3 billion Web pages, which isn't even 20 percent of the capacity available under just the ".com" top level domain (TLD). When new TLDs such as ".biz" and ".pro" start rolling out, the Web will get even more crowded next year and effective searching will become an even greater challenge.

"A great majority, (86 percent) of Internet users feel that a more efficient way to search the Web for accurate information should be in place," Roper Starch Worldwide researchers wrote. The survey also found that nearly a third of Web users say they need to spend about two hours a week searching for the information they want, with a majority (71 percent) becoming frustrated regardless of whether they are successful or not.

Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineWatch.com, points out another telling statistic: that more than half, or about 54 percent of those using search engines, don't get frustrated by wrong results. "Maybe that underscores the fact that a majority expects to get wrong information," he said.

While the survey does not point out any search engines by name, it does take a swipe at those that return a large number of results, such as Google or Alta Vista. Oddly enough, the survey was sponsored by natural language search engine WebTop (www.webtop.com).

Google spokesman David Krane was quick to point out that the search engine isn't perfect, and its evolution is not complete. But that doesn't mean it's simply spewing out an uncontrollable pile of Web pages. Google is incredibly simple and easy to use, and usually delivers highly accurate and relevant search results. If you perform a regular Google search, the results are ranked in order of their relevance and importance. This is measured through a patent-pending technology called PageRank, which, in conjunction with other parameters, assesses more value to pages that have more links made to them from other pages. And just for fun, try the "I'm Feeling Lucky" option, which can send you directly to the Web site of the first search result.

Questions or comments? E-mail inge@ingenius.bc.ca or visit www.ingenius.bc.ca/webwoman.