世論 What Japan Thinks

No serious internet user should be without Google, and this research conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into Google service awareness shows that many Japanese use it heavily.

Demographics

On the 11th of August 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group employed in either the public or private sector completed a private on-line questionnaire. 76.1% of the sample were male, 9.4% in their twenties, 37.9% in their thirties, 40.3% in their forties, 10.6% in their fifties, and 1.8% in their sixties.

As Yahoo! beats Google in Japan for most aspects, I’d love to see similar questions asked about that portal too.

Note that this survey was conducted after the Japanese versions of Google Maps Street View was launched, and although Q1SQ1 does not mention it, I wonder if Google Maps was included within the Google Earth answer? I also wonder if AdSense was grouped with AdWords.

Research results

Q1: Do you know the internet search engine Google? (Sample size=330)

Don’t know it	0.6%
Heard the name, but don’t really know what it is	2.7%
Know what it is, but not used it	2.7%
Have used it, sometimes use it (to SQs)	46.1%
Regularly use it (to SQs)	47.9%

Q1SQ1: Which Google non-search functions have you used? (Sample size=310, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Google Earth	247	79.7%
Gmail	89	28.7%
iGoogle	36	11.6%
Picasa	28	9.0%
Google Calendar	23	7.4%
Blogger	5	1.6%
Analytics	3	1.0%
AdWords	3	1.0%
None of the above	36	11.6%

Q1SQ2: Which Google search-related functions have you used? (Sample size=310, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Google Toolbar	154	49.7%
Image search	103	33.2%
Desktop search	60	19.4%
Google Mobile	43	13.9%
Local search	34	11.0%
PDF file search	16	5.2%
Cache link	11	3.5%
None of the above	57	18.4%