More than eight out of ten - 84 percent - of technology buyers begin research for information on one of the major search engines, according to a new study from KnowledgeStorm and MarketingSherpa: "Connecting Through Content, Issue Two: Content Distribution - Where Information Intersects With Interest," MarketingCharts reports.

The study was designed to examine how technology buyers search for content and how B2B marketers deliver content to them. Two concurrent surveys were fielded in April 2007 to more than 3,000 technology buyers and B2B marketers.

Among the study's key findings related to search:

• 56 percent of technology buyers when using a search engine use complex searches of three or more words.
• 53 percent of buyers scan, on average, 3-5 pages of search results. Only 11 percent stop at the first page.
• Sponsored links are read by 53 percent of buyers "frequently" or "sometimes"; 34 percent click on a link "frequently" or "sometimes":
  • 14 percent of technology buyers said they frequently read sponsored links and 6 percent frequently click on them.
  • 39 percent claim to "sometimes" read the sponsored links and 28 percent "sometimes" click on them
• 65 percent of marketers use a paid ad strategy to place their content on search results
• 66 percent of marketers have a strategy for ensuring high organic/natural placement on search engines

MarketingCharts provides some other key findings from the study.