Sentient conversations?

Almost 23 million people in the UK visited a search engine in January 2006, representing 84% of the Internet population.

This means that the population has a form of 'conversation' with the Internet. Not a person but a series of machines. They try to persuade the machines that make up the Internet to provide them with information. They try to get the Internet to respond to specific and personal need.

This is a two way 'conversation' but only one person involved and half of the UK population do it every month.

The figures, from Nielsen NetRatings, indicates that the retail sector benefits most from search engines, garnering the greatest number of people clicking-through from the likes of Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask. The UK Internet population clicks on over half a billion links on search engines every month. Mass merchandisers received the greatest number of people clicking-through, 7.6 million, which represents 33% of the search audience and 28% of the entire UK Internet population. Alex Burmaster, European Internet analyst at Nielsen NetRatings said: “Retail, government, broadcast media and universities are sectors particularly benefiting from search. The staggering percentage of people using search engines and clicking on links show how deeply ingrained the search experience is in today’s Internet. For many search has become the lifeblood that flows through the Internet body. “Different sectors have been successful in terms of benefiting from or utilising the leading search brands.” Burmaster continued. “For example, universities are the most popular destinations for Google searchers whereas broadcast media sites are the most popular destination for MSN searchers. "It shows that despite Google’s overwhelming popularity there are other viable options. For example, if you provide a web service such as file-sharing or music software you’ve got a greater probability of driving visitors through a smaller search engine such as eWoss,” he added.

Picture: Sentient