Study Shows Some Teens Not As Web-Savvy As Parents By Edward C. Baig - Think the teenager in your house can out-surf you? Think again. So says a study of 13- to 17-year-olds released today by the Nielsen Norman Group. The results suggest that some businesses are using ineffective strategies to target a teen market of some 20 million. The study found that, contrary to stereotype, teens as a group are not as adept as adults in navigating the Web. In the study, 38 teens were assigned tasks at 23 Web sites, operated by Apple, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble and other companies and organizations. At the Web site of the California Department of Motor Vehicles, teens were asked to make an appointment for a driving permit. At MTV.com, the challenge was to discover when Norah Jones would be in concert in the Golden State. The teens completed such tasks 55% of the time, compared with 66% of adults in a previous study.

I had noticed this in my various speeches when I discuss the future of the Internet including Bots, Blogs and News Aggregators. A number of teenagers needed to be educated about bots and blogs …. intersting ….