Teens can't tell the difference between Google ads and search results

Re:Teens can't tell the difference between Google ads and se... by adrianN on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @05:52AM (#10695715)

Despite the fact that these topmost search results were outlined in an orange box and labelled with the word "Ad," they were only recognized as such by 31 percent of 12- to 15-year-olds and 16 percent of 8- to 11-year-olds

In related news: 70% of teenagers fail basic reading comprehension tests?

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Re:Teens can't tell the difference between Google ads and se... by philh on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @09:36AM (#10696520)

I dyed my hair for Halloween. I specifically looked for a brand that wouldn't be permanent. When I was finished, I looked at the box again. It said "permanent" in fairly large letters in two different places, and I'd failed to notice both of them.

From the outside, this might look like "failing basic reading comprehension". But I don't think that's what's going on.

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Re:Teens can't tell the difference between Google ads and se... by junto on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @09:48AM (#10696593)

Side note: what color did you dye your hair then?

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Re:Teens can't tell the difference between Google ads and se... by philh on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @10:04AM (#10696708)

Red. I was going for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin_Sane#/media/File:Davis...

(I got lucky. I really like how it turned out, so I'm glad it was permanent.)

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Re:Teens can't tell the difference between Google ads and se... by StavrosK on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @07:09AM (#10695917)

In related news: 80% of adults fail basic reading comprehension tests, teens fare much better.

Baselines matter.

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Re:Teens can't tell the difference between Google ads and se... by falcolas on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:39AM (#10696224)

Correlating the word "Ad" with the concept "this isn't an actual search result, this is something we were paid to put up here" usually takes someone coming along and spelling out the link. They can read the word, but the association may not have been intuitively made before.

It's just another part of learning.

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Re:Teens can't tell the difference between Google ads and se... by mhurron on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:42AM (#10696248)

> In related news: 70% of teenagers fail basic reading comprehension tests?

Or they just don't care. Or they're blasted with ads so much all the time anyway working out the differences just isn't that important to them.

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Re:Teens can't tell the difference between Google ads and se... by knughit on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @12:04PM (#10697674)

No care enoufh to know? They were asked about the links and didn't identify them as ads.

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Re:Teens can't tell the difference between Google ads and se... by mhurron on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @01:00PM (#10698087)

So? Do you put effort into things you don't really give a damn about? It would appear that you don't.

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