Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Eye-tracking studies
There seems to be a general trend that searchers keep their eyes focused generally
on the portion of the SERP that is nearest the query box. This is understandable.
Scanning an entire SERP with multiple sponsored and nonsponsored links takes cog-
nitive effort, and we know that searchers seek to expend the least energy possible and
still accomplish their information-seeking task.
Figure 4.3
is an example of a typical heat map for an eye-tracking study of a searcher
interfacing with a SERP. A heat map denotes areas of eye focus on the SERP.
One sees from Figure 4.3 that there are four general areas of eye focus. There is a
small, concentrated area with the most eye focus; a similar sized but more dispersed
area with high eye focus; a larger and very dispersed area of some eye focus; and
finally, the largest area with no eye focus.
Notice that most of the attention is focused at the upper left-hand corner of the
SERP page, moving about half across the page to the right. There is a focus on the
top sponsored-search listing and some brief scans down the both sponsored and non-
sponsored listings. Note that there is some recency effect (as cited in [
27
]), with eye
focus on the last result in both sponsored and nonsponsored listings.
This behavior is typically what we would expect from the principle of least effort,
principle of information access, and the Hick-Hyman law, namely little expenditure
of energy (i.e., trusting of the search engine technology for ranking relevant results),
accessing the information that is easiest to get to (i.e., the ones at the top of the list),
and a nearly immediate chunking of choices into sets (i.e., those at the top of each list
and those not in the top of the list.). These eye-tracking patterns were first observed
in the findings of eye-tracking studies conducted by the search engine marketing
research firm, Enquiro (now Mediative), which showed this eye-tracking pattern and
labeled it “The Google Golden Triangle” [
28
,
29
].
Potpourri
: Whenever I see the heat plots from eye-tracking studies, they always
remind me of the Golden Ratio and the Golden Triangle.
The Golden Ratio is a mathematical ratio of two parallel lines such that the
ratio of the whole to the longest is the same as the longest to the shortest. The
Golden Triangle is an isosceles triangle such that the ratio of the hypotenuse to the
base is equal to the golden ratio.
The Golden Ratio may explain why slight changes in the location of sponsored
results (on the right or east side) affect click-through rates on these ads.
The Golden Triangle may also explain how far down searchers typically scan
when first viewing the SERP. It may be affected by the width of the SERP in the
browser.
These two questions are open to empirical evaluation.
By now, you can start to see a trend.
People start from the top left and work their way down, jumping back and forth on
the page. They also consume information in bits and pieces (i.e., information forag-
ing). They will read a headline. If it is of interest, they will continue to read.
