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Googling Google

Christopher Dawson

Google study reveals "Golden Triangle"

By | March 16, 2006, 6:22am PST

Summary: Jeff on the Google Blogoscoped forums found a very interesting article with the results of an eye tracking study performed by Enquiro.  The study watched eye movements of fifty users on the Google search engine result pages.  It revealed a "golden triangle" that confirms nothing beats organic search results — sponsored sites that appear above [...]

Jeff on the Google Blogoscoped forums found a very interesting article with the results of an eye tracking study performed by Enquiro.  The study watched eye movements of fifty users on the Google search engine result pages.  It revealed a "golden triangle" that confirms nothing beats organic search results — sponsored sites that appear above results do very well though.

google-eyetracking.jpg 

This article got me thinking.  Why doesn’t Google incorporate this type of tracking into Google Analytics?  You may wonder how Google could possibly track eye movements of users — it isn’t difficult. People often follow their eyes with their mouse when using a computer — try it yourself.  Approximate eye movements are extremely easy to capture with a few lines of javascript.

Google Analytics already shows where people click on a page with the site overlay, but visually seeing where people look could also be very powerful information. 

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Garett Rogers has always had a deep interest in computers and the Internet, which led him to a degree in Computer Information Systems. He is currently employed as a programmer for iQmetrix.

Disclosure

Garett Rogers

Garett Rogers is employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software for the wireless industry. He has no other formal associations with any software or hardware companies.

Biography

Garett Rogers

Garett Rogers has always had a deep interest in computers and the Internet, which led him to a degree in Computer Information Systems. He is currently employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software designed specifically for the cellular and electronics industry.

Garett's journey into Google started with his employer asking him to "get a better rank on Google." Diving into search engine optimization sparked his curiosity for how things work and led him to create a blog dedicated to what interests him most--Google.

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RE: Google study reveals
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Well, not always.
shrikant.j 17th Mar 2006
Especially with <nClick events.

WHen I click I tend to let my mouse rest for a while there because I am taking in information as it begins to appear.

Or when I am typing responses, for that matter.

When I am reading content my pointer is on the right hand side, ready to pull down the scroll bar to facilitate easy reading of the content being displayed.

If (and that is a very large if) I find content really intersting and I decide to copy it or use it does my mouse move toward the content.

With search results, those of us who know better, tend to skim through the first few searches and choose one of the first three or five.

I suspect a 3-d delta function map would reveal more about the golden triangle, if we were to bias the result for tech-savvy users.

I suspect the Golden Triangle would be more of a Golden Quadrilateral with the edges spread across the whole ten results. Is anybody game for this?

Regards,
Shri.
http://corporatespices.blogspot.com
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Web Analytics
azharaslam 1st Dec 2006
The eye tracking or heat tracking maps have been part of the traditional marketing research for a while. I dont know if google will add it to google analytics but for a little fee per month you can buy it from the great guys at eggcrazy.com
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Pay Per Click Threat?
bobbyrizz 1st Aug 2010
Maybe not but this is great insight for any online marketer. How does one exploit this to their clients benefit? Thanks for the article.

Takethefirststepmarketing.com
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RE: Google study reveals
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