A free Internet Explorer plug-in released Wednesday provides an instant view of the content of a search listing when a user’s cursor hovers over it, without having to click and wait for a page to download, reports CNET.
What seems to be lost in the “wow” of the technology is that the clicks that would have normally resulted would be greatly reduced, except for those times when a viewer actually wanted to interact or purchase. Widespread adoption of the plug-in could have repercussions for search engines – which make more money on clicks that do not convert than they do clicks that result in a purchase – and for search engine marketers who use click-to-convert ratios to help optimize their campaigns.