58% Of Americans Research Products Online: Pew Study

U.S. adults are going online more frequently to search for information about products and services. According to a new report from the Pew Research Center, 58% of Americans conduct such research online “at least occasionally.” That’s up from 49% who said the same thing in 2004. When applied strictly to the Internet-using population in the […]

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U.S. adults are going online more frequently to search for information about products and services. According to a new report from the Pew Research Center, 58% of Americans conduct such research online “at least occasionally.” That’s up from 49% who said the same thing in 2004.

When applied strictly to the Internet-using population in the U.S., the number goes up: Pew says 78% of adult Internet users in the U.S. do product or service research online. Here’s a further demographic breakdown of that 78% number.

pew chart

This Pew study doesn’t distinguish how the “online research” happens. We can infer that search is a popular way that adults look for product or service information, but it may also include visiting company web sites, e-commerce sites, or even sites that offer ratings and reviews of products and/or businesses.

Speaking of reviews, the Pew study says 24% of all U.S. adults (32% of Internet users) have posted product reviews or comments online.

Pew surveyed 3,001 U.S. adults between August 9 and September 13, 2010.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Matt McGee
Contributor
Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.

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