Almost half (47%) of 18-24-year-olds use real-time search results, but just 8% find them useful, according to research by Tamar.

Search engines including Google and Bing began to use integrated feeds from social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to provide real-time content into search queries at the end of 2009. Despite only being live for half a year, 47% of young internet users are already using real-time search results.

The report into the search habits of 2,210 people also showed just 4% of people would choose paid search results over natural search results, down by 1% on 2009 and down 6% on 2007.

The research found that people over 55 were the least likely to trust paid search as a trusted source with just 3% choosing it over natural search results.

Younger people are increasing their use of mobile to search as 14% of both 18-24-year olds and 25-34-year-olds use mobile search every day.

Neil Jackson, search strategy director at Tamar, said, “Consumers have decided that natural search is the route they trust more and this defines the strategic starting point for all brands, which need to focus on being highly visible ‘naturally’ through campaigns that reach effectively across a wide range of media and devices, especially mobile – a huge growth area for the search engines.”