Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

by Nir Eyal

Google Search provides an example of a service built upon a frequent behavior that helped create users’ habits. If you’re skeptical that Google is habit forming (and you are a frequent Google user), just try using Bing. In a head-to-head comparison of the efficacy of an incognito search, the products are nearly identical.15 Even if the geniuses at Google have in fact perfected a faster algorithm, the time saved is imperceptible. So why haven’t more Google users switched to Bing? Habits keep users loyal. If a user is familiar with the Google interface, switching to Bing requires cognitive effort. Although many aspects of Bing are similar to Google, even a slight change in pixel placement forces the would-be user to learn a new way of interacting with the site. Adapting to the differences in the Bing interface is what actually slows down regular Google users and makes Bing feel inferior, not the technology itself.