Selected news stories about the Pew Internet Project and articles citing our data.
Search Engines Build a Better Mousetrap
3/10/2005 | 
Coverage
Tim Gnatek , The New York Times
'"Google has so firmly staked out its place as the Internet search-engine leader that it has even earned a place as a verb in the English lexicon.
Paradoxically, because of its very popularity, there may be no better time to try something different.
Google's success has forced competitors like Yahoo, MSN Search and Ask Jeeves to hustle with releasing new product features, search controls and improved behind-the-scenes programming. The resulting bonanza of tools brings more search capabilities, presented more intuitively than the Web has ever seen.
But despite the advances, it may be users' search habits that present the biggest barrier to improving the search experience.
According to another recent report on search conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, it is human behavior that may need to change most before the average Internet user can take advantage of all that search has to offer.
Dr. Deborah Fallows, who wrote the Pew report, feels that search can improve across the board when the majority of search users start to pose the kinds of refined queries that services expect."
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