Business Week Survey

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BUSINESS WEEK ONLINE READER SURVEY

September 10, 1998

YOUR PORTAL PREFERENCES

Do you Yahoo!? Or do you Excite? Or do you Infoseek? Or do you...

You've read (haven't you?) what we've had to say about portal sites. This survey was your chance to tell us what you thought about your portal preferences. Even if you'd never heard of Yahoo! or MSN, your opinion was valued. Please note: This was not a scientific poll since it measured the opinions of only those readers who chose to respond, rather than drawing on a statistically representative sample of the population. Still, we're sure that you will find the results to be interesting.

Well over 600 of you responded and here is what you had to say:

1. How long have you been using the Web?

17.61% Less than six months
18.47% Six months to one year
19.03% One year to two years
44.89% More than two years

2. Is your browser's home or starting page set to:

0.99% Alta Vista
1.99% AOL.com
1.70% Excite
1.99% Infoseek
0.85% Lycos
1.70% MSN.com
65.82% Netscape (Netcenter)
2.55% Snap!
5.67% Yahoo!
5.25% Your company's corporate home page
11.06% Other
0.43% Don't know

3. Whether or not your starting page is a portal, how often do you use such a site:

76.31% Every day
19.72% Frequently
2.98% Occasionally
0.99% Rarely
0% Never

4. Do you typically use more than one portal site?

16.50% Always
48.08% Sometimes
35.42% Never

How important is it to you that a portal site offer a wide variety of services beyond search, such as:

5. News, financial info, or sports scores?

85.33% Very important
9.83% Take it or leave it
4.84% Couldn't care less

6. Free E-mail?

65.34% Very important
18.75% Take it or leave it
15.91% Couldn't care less

7. Chat/message boards?

52.79% Very important
22.17% Take it or leave it
25.04% Couldn't care less

8. Customizable starting page?

75.79% Very important
16.05% Take it or leave it
8.17% Couldn't care less

9. The ability to build personal Web pages?

58.51% Very important
22.32% Take it or leave it
19.17% Couldn't care less

10. If you wanted to use the Web to research and/or buy, say, a new stereo system, would you begin by going to:

81.55% A portal site
11.16% A buying-guide site such as Consumer Reports
4.29% A consumer electronics company's home page
3.00% Other

11. How often would you say you click on advertisements on portal sites?

40.63% 0% to 5% of the time
27.56% 6% to 10%
6.11% 11% to 15%
3.84% 16% to 20%
21.88% More than 20%

12. How do you feel about ads on a portal site that appear in response to your search topic (i.e., you search for "Ford Mustang" and car dealer or auto loan ads appear)?

73.65% I find them useful
3.13% They make me feel like I'm being watched
17.95% I pay no attention one way or another
4.42% I hate them
0.85% I had no idea that this happens

13. How concerned are you about the security of information you give to portal sites?

62.86% Very concerned
24.29% Somewhat concerned
12.86% Couldn't care less

14. Are you so attached to any particular portal that it would be a pain to start using another one regularly (i.e., because of an E-mail account or because you have all your investment information on one)?

57.98% Yes
26.78% No
15.24% Not sure

15. The major browsers and the versions of them used by most Internet service providers (including AOL) come with a default home or starting page installed. Do you know how to change it?

91.03% Yes
6.13% No
2.85% Not sure