Three months after Google launched the DIY research tool Google Consumer Surveys, researchers remain fixated on what percentage of the respondents who answer a Google Consumer Surveys question are not even reading the question, but are just clicking on any box, just to get past the survey, and get to the content that is behind [...]

We have observed that one strength of the Do-It-Yourself research tool Google Consumer Surveys is that it is an affordable way to reach a low-incidence population. In today’s example, we have a DIY researcher who wants to talk to the parents of autistic children, to measure receptivity to a $1,500 annual service that includes phone [...]

Google Consumer Surveys is a Do-It-Yourself research tool that allows the Do-It-Yourselfer to do anything he/she wants, including ruin the very project he/she is undertaking. In all of the following examples, the DIY researcher needed to specify a single-answer (“radio button”) question type, and in all of the following examples, the DIY researcher got it [...]

Intuit Labs, part of Intuit, owners of Turbo Tax, Quicken and QuickBooks, appears to be using Google Consumer Surveys to test a new ratings service for local merchants. A Zagat for hair salons and auto mechanics, as best we can tell. And yes, like you, we have trouble reading the example that Intuit has placed [...]

Google’s Do-It-Yourself research tool, Google Consumer Surveys, which started as an apolitical way to settle bar bets, has now taken an increasingly content-heavy swing into politics and current events. In recent days, we spy questions about diplomacy, the role of the military, religion and politics, and the strength of the economy. Consider: Who do you [...]

Google’s DIY research Tool, Google Consumer Surveys (#gsurveys), makes it possible to find extremely rare populations affordably. In the example below, the DIY researcher is looking for horse owners, about a 4 percent incidence. If you answer the “hub” question (outlined in red) with either of the 2 “yes” answers, you get one of the [...]

Value Proposition testing plays to Google Consumer Surveys’ strength. Traditionally, when you test the value of a proposition in an opinion survey, your respondents are contaminated by order bias (what a respondent hears early in a questionnaire can contaminate what a respondent thinks later in the same survey). Typically, you describe a new product to [...]

There are 2 types of multiple-choice questions in survey research. Click one of the following. (known as radio buttons) Check all that apply. (known as check boxes) These 2 question types are effective if properly used, but they are not interchangeable. When misused, they turn an otherwise good research question into an unanswerable mess. Google [...]

Credible evidence that the Obama campaign is using Google’s Do-It-Yourself research tool, Google Consumer Surveys, to quick test some internet display advertising. Respondents are asked which of 2 ads they would be more likely to click on: Do you think this research is being taken by Obama for America? Or do you think some other [...]

Google had a problem with its original 7 Google Consumer Surveys question types: any time a DIY researcher wanted to show an image to respondents, the image was too small to be seen. We wrote about this here and here. Google attempted to remedy the problem by introducing a new question type, with bigger images. [...]