Businesses could save considerable amounts of money by using the internet to search more productively, research has indicated.
A new study from Artesian Solutions has found that 36 per cent of employees find it extremely difficult to use search engines effectively.
In total, the time this takes up can reach 11 hours per week for sales and marketing executives, compared to those using automated search services online.
This lost time amounts to more than £4 billion per year being thrown away by UK businesses.
Andrew Yates, chief executive of Artesian Solutions, commented: "Poor internet productivity as a result of the incorrect use of search engine technology to drive research is costing UK businesses billions of pounds.
"Web 2.0 and the semantic web are new technologies which are progressing fast to make the internet more useful in a B2B context thus avoiding the scenario of highly paid employees 'fumbling in the dark' for the information they need."
The likes of Siemens and Vodafone are companies using automated search to boost their web performance.
© Adfero Ltd
