Forbrukersøk

Forbrukersøk, or consumer search, denotes the study and practice of how people look for information about products and services, how they compare options, and how they decide what to buy. The concept covers both online and offline channels, including search engines, retailer sites, price- and feature-comparison portals, product reviews, social media, and word‑of‑mouth recommendations.

In business and research contexts, forbrukersøk aims to understand what information consumers need, how they search for it, which attributes they weigh (price, quality, brand, sustainability), and how presentation of information affects choices. The findings help improve product discovery, content strategy, and user experience, while also informing policy discussions about consumer protection and market transparency.

Common methods include surveys and interviews to capture attitudes and behavior, experiments and A/B testing to measure cause-effect relationships, and analysis of digital trace data such as clickstreams and search logs. Researchers also use ethnography and eye-tracking in lab settings to observe search behavior. The field intersects information science, marketing, and consumer psychology, and it pays attention to search engine optimization, ranking algorithms, and recommender systems.

Ethical and legal considerations include privacy and data protection, informed consent, and the risk of algorithmic bias or manipulation. Practitioners emphasize digital literacy and accessible information to help consumers make informed choices. Limitations of forbrukersøk include rapidly changing online ecosystems, cross-channel influences, and the challenge of attributing purchase decisions to a single information source.