Publications
Publications
- Journal of Marketing Research (JMR)
Design of Search Engine Services: Channel Interdependence in Search Engine Results
By: Benjamin Edelman and Zhenyu Lai
Abstract
The authors examine prominent placement of search engines' own services and effects on users' choices. Evaluating a natural experiment in which different results were shown to users who performed similar searches, they find that Google's prominent placement of its Flight Search service increased the clicks on paid advertising listings by more than half while decreasing the clicks on organic search listings by about the same quantity. This effect appears to result from interactions between the design of search results and users' decisions about where and how to focus their attention: users who decide what to click based on listings' relevance became more likely to select paid listings, while users who are influenced by listings' visual presentation and page position became more likely to click on Google's own Flight Search listing. The authors consider implications of these findings for competition policy and for online marketing strategies.
Keywords
Search Engine; Organic Search; Sponsored Search Advertising; User Interface; Channel Substitution; Search Technology; Consumer Behavior; Online Advertising
Citation
Edelman, Benjamin, and Zhenyu Lai. "Design of Search Engine Services: Channel Interdependence in Search Engine Results." Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) 53, no. 6 (December 2016): 881–900. (First posted April 2013.)