Soft-boiled information

Pew Internet just did a study of the use and understanding of search engines, with results that surprise me, at least--many people use them very seldom, and most appear not to understand the significance of "sponsored links."

This finding is ironic, since nearly half of all users say they would stop using search engines if they thought engines were not being clear about how they presented paid results.

I wondered whether the survey findings would differ with age; i.e., are the younger generation of Internet-native users more savvy about potential marketing-driven manipulations? Younger users (under 30) are described as "more active searchers" and "more comfortable with the existance sponsored results," but also more trusting in the results they get; is that because they filter the sponsored links, or because they don't know their own blind-spots?

(via boing boing)