'Sophisticated' Searchers Favor Google?

Earlier this week John Battelle made reference to a search engine usage survey conducted by investment firm SG Cowen & Co. Today MediaPost (reg. req'd) reports on the same survey:

People who have been online seven years or longer are far more likely to use Google for search than Yahoo!, MSN, or AOL, according to a new report by investment bank SG Cowen & Co. The study, based on a survey of 1,000 online users, found that 60 percent of those who used Google as their primary search engine had been online since at least 1997 …

Among the survey's top-level findings/conclusions are the following:

• The longer a consumer has been online, the more likely he or she is to use Google as a primary search engine.
• Google users are much more likely to have an annual household income of more than $60,000 than users of Yahoo!, MSN or AOL.

The survey report also argues that Google and Yahoo! will increase market share going forward.

The central conclusion of the report — that the more sophisticated Internet users become, the more they're likely to use Google — is, of course, an empirical question. The answer will be revealed in time. But it is a fascinating supposition and warrants a tracking survey.