Objective
To gauge and improve the knowledge and utility of Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” Button.
Data Collection
A survey experiment was created using qualtrics and floated on Prolific to collect data from 102 Americans.
The survey first asked about the existing usage and knowledge that respondents had:
- When you google something, how frequently do you utilize the “I’m feeling lucky” button?
- How knowledgeable are you about what the “I’m feeling lucky” button does?
The respondents were then informed about what the button does and asked:
- Now that you know what the “I’m feeling lucky” button does, how frequently do you plan to utilize the “I’m feeling lucky” button when you google something?
All participants were then divided into two groups. In one group, participants were primed to be deterministic, and in the other group, they were primed to be probabilistic. Then, they read about the possibility of seeing a preview of where they would land if they clicked on the ‘I’m feeling lucky’ button and asked how frequently they would plan to utilize it.
Analysis and Results
As expected, most people almost never use that button and are only slightly knowledgeable about it.
After learning what the button does, their intention to utilize it improved significantly, but still averaged around ‘rarely.’
After experimental manipulation and learning about the possibility of seeing a preview of where they would land if they clicked on the ‘I’m feeling lucky’ button, the intention to utilize the button went up again and participants suggested that they would ‘occasionally’ utilize it. Interestingly, this was true for the participants in the probabilistic group as well, even though one might expect them to appreciate the status quo, happily land on an unforeseen page, and reject the deterministic preview functionality.
Frequency of utilizing the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button
