"The Life Series" research was developed based on the belief that adults go through various life events -- experiences that fundamentally change the way a person lives their life -- throughout the course of their lifetime. These events could include going to college, having a baby, moving to a new city and retiring. Yahoo! Search Marketing has identified 10-15 such life events to explore in this research study. The first two life events explored in the series were going to college and having a baby.

The initial key findings in this research revealed that people experiencing such events share certain common characteristics, including a desire for trusted information sources, heavy reliance on research prior to making decisions and increased time spent on research during their life event.

Additional key findings from the research include:

-- 86% of new parents-to-be said they use the Internet to search about information on pregnancy, as compared to books (68%), friends/family (53%) and magazines (37%).

-- 54% of new parents said search simplified their lives more so than magazines (17%) or TV (10%)

-- 81% of college students rate search as their best source of information, followed by friends and family (64%), newspapers (36%) and TV (24%)

The research findings also showed that life events link online and offline worlds. For parents-to-be, search is an essential and complementary tool when learning about their potential purchases, but many purchases for their new babies will ultimately be made offline. College students are much more likely to make purchases online, except for larger investments, where they still trust offline channels more.

"People are more likely to consider new products and brands as they move through different life stages. Our research tells us that web search represents a trusted and highly used source for information," said David Karnstedt, senior vice president and general manager for direct business at Yahoo! Search Marketing. "To own a consumer's point of entry into a product category and develop long-lasting relationships is every marketer's goal. What we are doing now is gaining more insight into how our customers can accomplish this via search."

To obtain information for "The Life Series," Yahoo! Search Marketing used a comprehensive three-phase research approach focusing on qualitative ethnography, qualitative surveys and click stream analysis. Yahoo! Search Marketing teamed up with Compete, Greenberg Brand Strategy and Hall & Partners to conduct "The Life Series" research:

QUALITATIVE ETHNOGRAPHY:

The qualitative portion of the research was conducted by Greenberg Brand Strategy using an ethnographic approach (documentary style interviewing) to determine the "why." Research got up close and personal with two types of consumers from two life stages: college students and new parents. Interviews were conducted at their dorms and homes, and examined their preferred shopping activities.

QUANTITATIVE SURVEY:

In order to capture attitudes toward research and specifically, keyword search, Yahoo! Search Marketing partnered with Hall & Partners, and surveyed more than 450 respondents in the Having a Baby and Going to College life stages. The research was aimed at understanding attitudes during these life events and the need for reliable information sources. Respondents were asked to rate various research sources on a range of attributes to gauge importance, credibility, relevance and functionality. Broad level perceptions about online search were captured, as well as insight into how search was leveraged in the context of occasions specific to their life stage.

CLICK STREAM:

Using a panel of two million U.S. Internet users, Compete Inc. examined the online behavior of our qualified life segments and compared them to users in similar demographic profiles. A wide range of activities were observed, from total time spent online to search behavior to specific category shopping behavior across more than 500 retail sites.

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. is the No. 1 Internet brand globally and the most trafficked Internet destination. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., Yahoo!'s mission is to provide online products and services essential to consumers' lives and offer a full range of marketing solutions to enable businesses to connect with Yahoo!'s hundreds of millions of users worldwide.