These days, search engines are ubiquitous in the world of information gathering. Depending on your goal, you might type anywhere from a single word to a lengthy question into a search box. But do certain search engines tend to have more verbose user bases? Chitika Insights wanted to examine how the number of words in a search query varied with the particular search engine.

Yesterday, we looked at the five most popular search engines in the US: Google, Yahoo, Ask, Bing, and AOL. We found that AOL users are the most succinct, typing on average 4.17 words per query. They are closely followed by Bing, Yahoo!, and Google, clocking in at 4.18, 4.20, and 4.29, respectively. Ask.com users round out the pack at 4.74 words per query, making them the wordiest searchers online.

More interestingly, we discovered that Ask.com users type queries that are eight words or longer almost 15% of the time (14.74%). This is almost twice as often as their closest follower in this category, AOL, whose users pop eight words or more into the box 8.38% of the time.

Perhaps Ask’s wordy user base may have stemmed from their origins as AskJeeves.com. Per Wikipedia, AskJeeves was originally designed to “allow users to get answers to questions posed in everyday, natural language.” Perhaps this user base has persisted over the years, and may explain why Ask.com has the most long-winded searchers online.

Hey there! We know how important it is to get feedback on your marketing materials before you launch them. But how do you test on real people without spending a lot of money? That’s where Poll the People comes in! We offer a free signup so you can test your brochures on our platform. Just upload your PDF or image, add some questions, and you’re ready to go! Get started now and see what people really think of your brochures. It’s quick, easy, and best of all, free!