Google Releases Ho-Hum Eye-Tracking Heat Map
By Anna Johnson on February 12th, 2009Google has posted an article on the Official Google Blog explaining the methodology behind how it lists search results. The post includes an image of a heat map depicting where the average Google search engine user’s eyes linger on a page of search results.
Here’s a screen capture of the heat map in question:
Google says the results of its eye-tracking survey indicate Google’s effectiveness in yielding relevant results. The dark pattern on the upper-left of the page means most people looked at the top few results.
As Google’s Anne Aula and Kerry Rodden put it:
“The darker the pattern, the more time they spent looking at that part of the page. This pattern suggests that the order in which Google returned the results was successful; most users found what they were looking for among the first two results and they never needed to go further down the page.”
That seems logical. Although, it could also reflect a tendency for people to assume that the first two results are relevant and to click on those before refining their web search. An interesting tendency in itself, if true.
Curiously, Google didn’t seem to track a page featuring Google Adwords ads down the right-hand-side of the page. Or, at least, it didn’t publish a heat-map of such a page.
Heat maps I’ve seen in the past indicate a slightly different pattern on a page with Google Adwords ads. Although not as dark as the coloring on the upper left of the page, there is typically a small patch of shading on the top-left of the page.
All in all, Google’s heat map doesn’t really tell us much new. But if you haven’t seen one of these heat maps before, let it confirm the desirability of ranking in the top few spots for your targeted search terms…
