Understanding Google Places & Local Search – Developing Knowledge about Local Search

September 29, 2010

Pew Research: 24% of American Adults Have Posted Reviews

Category: Reviews – Mike Blumenthal – 3:20 pm

The Pew Internet and American Life Project has just published their recent results of Online Product Research by American adults. The hghlights:

*58% of Americans now reporting that they perform online research concerning the products and services that they are considering purchasing.

*The number of those who do research about products on any given day has jumped from 15% of adults in September 2007 to 21% in September 2010

*24% of American adults say they have posted comments or reviews online about the product or services they buy,

The numbers confirm Greg Sterling’s long stated Research Online Buy Offline mantra. The number of adults reporting having done product reviews is somewhat surprising to me. Interestingly the reviewers are roughly equally split between men and women and across age groups with some tilt towards white, higher educated and higher income individuals as more likely to leave reviews.

While the research is specifically about product reviews, I think it not unreasonable to think that a similar trend will apply to business reviews.

Please consider leaving a comment as your input will help me (& everyone else) better understand and learn about local.

2 Comments »

  1. That is significant information. Reviews: Not just powerful…they are plentiful

    Comment by earlpearl (784 comments) — September 29, 2010 @ 5:21 pm

  2. Would love to see similar research about place reviews but it is exciting

    Comment by Mike (2500 comments) — September 29, 2010 @ 8:55 pm

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