"I've seen studies where the researchers show Yahoo results on Google's template, and vice-versa, and people still thought that Google had better results."
Just to clarify, I suppose you mean people thought the Google site with the Yahoo results was better than the Yahoo site with the Google results?
Yes, that's exactly what I mean. Yahoo search results on a Google webpage were considered more relevant than Google search results on the Yahoo webpage!
Google is a brand. Some people automatically think it's better.
Just to clarify, I suppose you mean people thought the Google site with the Yahoo results was better than the Yahoo site with the Google results?