India now has the second position in terms of absolute search query volumes related to Education on Google search, trailing only the United States, according to the 'Students on the web' study, compiled by Google India. The company says that this study was compiled by combining Google search query patterns from both desktop and mobile search queries during Jan 2011 - June 2012 and an offline research conducted by TNS Australia, on behalf of Google India, with a sample size of 2,229 people across 7 cities including New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Google added that India stood in 8th position in 2008. Here are some highlights from the study: - Over 60% Indian students who have access to Internet, use it as their first research source for information related to educational courses and institutes. - Education related queries on Google has grown by 46% year on year in India. Out of this, over 40% of queries were for higher education courses and institutes. Mobile accounted for 22% of all education related search queries and the search queries has grown by 135% YoY. - IT/Vocational courses were the most searched courses accounting for 44% of the search queries, followed by engineering courses which accounted for 40% of the search queries and post graduate courses with MBA which accounted for 16% of the search queries. Google stated that in the offline research, 56% of students chose placements as the primary criteria for researching or selecting courses and institutes, followed by faculty…
