I agree that a lot of this Bing vs. Google assumes the algorithms are equivalent in terms of results. Personally, there are still differences…

Eye tracking has some limited uses. This is certainly true. I fully agree and often there is too much emphasis on it. That said, consider sponsored advertisements. Before the era of click-thru ads to generate spend, advertisements held more than simply call to action responses… there was brand awareness.

How many times has anyone ever clicked on a Tide detergent ad? Does P&G want to users to click? Sure, but part of the ad spend is on brand awareness and that is free.

So, for eye tracking, the value is two-fold: The more people who look, the more potential opportunity you have to get a click AND you also get more brand awareness and no one would complain that brand awareness is necessarily a bad thing, especially when free!

Now, you have another good point about the novelty of the new design. That is an area we will address in an upcoming study…

Regards,
Gavin Lew
User Centric, Inc.