My guess is just the opposite. I'll betcha MOST people (by far), especially newcomers, ask before searching. And of those who do search, I'll wager that a large number don't search efficiently and strategically. I can say that with reasonable confidence because (stealing your statistic here) 95% of my searches find what I want within the first 3 pages, and typically in the first page. I've stepped in to help users search on the 'net in other contexts and the vast majority of the time they have failed because they just flat don't understand search.

Of course, I've just set myself up for you to suggest we respond with searching tutorials instead of "hey, noob, hit the Search button!"

And was that last comment of yours sarcasm, geneven? My detector is on the fritz.

Oh, and 95% of all statistics are made up on the spot, ya know.