Users are not satisfied with portals and search engines and social media networks as the proliferation of advertising is diminishing the customer experience, according to a new study released by ForeSee.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index’s (ACSI) E-business report gave search engines, social networks, and online news and information websites a collective satisfaction grade of 71.3 out of 100.
According to the study, customer satisfaction with e-business has tumbled to its lowest score since 2003, while 22% of search engine visitors cited advertisements as what they liked least about the site.
Three out of five social media site visitors surveyed said they do not pay attention to ads on the site, and one in five said ads interfere with their experience.
ForeSee president and CEO, Larry Freed, said advertising may be the necessary evil of e-business.
"Most e-businesses begin as a free service to gain traction with consumers and increase market share, but eventually they need to find a way to monetise their business. Unfortunately, consumers generally perceive the increase in advertising as detracting from their online experience," Freed said.
ForeSee said the decline in e-business is largely due to falling customer satisfaction with search engines and portals, the largest category of the sector.
Google remains the most satisfying search engine, despite a 6% slide to a score of 77, followed by its rivals Bing and Yahoo at 76 with a decline of 6% and 3%, respectively.
MSN and AOL were at fourth and fifth places with scores of 74 and 71, while the aggregate of smaller portals and search engines like GoodSearch and MetaCrawler dive 13% to 70.
Social media network’s satisfaction index dropped 1.4% to 68 out of 100 and Wikipedia retained its top position with an unchanged score of 78.
