Seeking Help with finding an assertion

[Skinner, Karen (NIH/NIDA) [E]]

Recently I read somewhere (on this list, a blog, a news story, where...?) an 
assertion that struck me as an interesting passing fact at the time.   As I 
recall, it indicated that more websites are accessed via a search engine than 
by typing a URL into a browser web address bar.
 
Alas, I did not save the reference, and now I am looking for the proverbial 
needle in a haystack. Namely, what is the exact assertion, who asserted it, and 
where did they make it?  If anyone in the world has this information or knows 
how to get it, or or has related data, I imagine they would belong to this 
list. I would be most grateful for any useful pointer.
 
Along this same vein, if anyone has any statistics, data, anecodotes or 
information related to the cost of 
 
(1) "friction" arising from inefficient or inappropriate efforts at information 
retrieval
and
(2) the cost of "negative knowledge" about an existing resource or data,
 
these, too, would be helpful.
 
(For example, with respect to #2 above, we are all familiar with comparison 
shopping for goods and services. We seek data/information about prices and 
quality , but at what point does the expenditure of that effort exceed the 
value of the information learned?)
 
I am not looking for examples at the level of a philosophy or ecnomics Ph.D. 
thesis, but rather a few examples in the sciences that can be used at the level 
of an "elevator speech."
 
 
Karen Skinner
Deputy Director for Science and Technology Development
Division of Basic Neuroscience and Behavior Research
National Institute on Drug Abuse/NIH