Survey ranks Google highly despite privacy fears


March 9, 2012 at 11:36a.m.

Survey ranks Google highly despite privacy fears

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google is almost everyone’s favorite search engine, despite misgivings about data-collection and advertising practices that are widely seen as intrusive.

A survey released today by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found 83 percent of the respondents rated Google as their preferred search engine. That was up from 47 percent in 2004, the last time that Pew gauged people’s attitudes about Internet search engines.

The Pew findings also indicated Google may be risking its popularity by trying to learn more about users in a quest to sell more advertising.

Google could be vulnerable to a backlash if major rivals such as Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook didn’t also collect personal information to help them aim their ads at the right audiences.