OneUpWeb released an eye-tracking study that showed how most searches ignore the real time search results. The takeaways from the study, as Greg Sterling recapped nicely include:

73% had never heard of real-time results before participating this studyOnly a quarter of the consumers cared for the real-time results compared to 47% of the information foragersThe majority of the participants surveyed were indifferent to the real-time results

The Guardian notes that these real time results cost Google $15m and Bing $10m – what is the return on investment for that then?

A WebmasterWorld thread has conversation around this where most people say they are not surprised by the study’s findings. Just hard to imagine blowing $15 million on something like this.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.