From InteractionArchitect.com: “A category of “skeptical Internet users” has abandoned searching the web. The skeptical Internet user has made a return-on-investment evaluation of his Internet experience, and has come to the conclusion that the return on some sites is just not worth the investment of his personal time and energy.”
I’m not surprised. Back when search engines where the only way to find anything on the web people had to use them, and the engines could get away with over-promising and under-delivering (“type just a few words into this little text box and I’ll find what you’re looking for” – not even a trained librarian could manage that feat). Now that people are inundated with dot com ads and personal recommendations (and weblog links too), there’s not as much reason to tolerate annoying search engine results, there’s plenty other references for them to investigate.