Searching the Web: a survey of EXCITE users

Web search services are now a major source of information for a growing number of people. We need to know more about how users search Web search engines to improve the effectiveness of their information retrieval. This paper reports results from a major study exploring users’ information searching behavior on the EXCITE Web search engine. The study is the first to investigate Web users’ successive searching behavior as they conduct related searches over time on the same or evolving topic. A total of 316 EXCITE users responded to an interactive survey accessed through EXCITE’s homepage. Users provided information on their search topics, intended query terms, search frequency for information on their topic, and demographic data. Results show that when searching the Web: users tend to employ simple search strategies; and often conduct more than one search (successive searches) over time to find information related to a particular topic. Implications for the design of Web search services are discussed. Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy Volume 9 · Number 2 · 1999 · pp. 117–128 © MCB University Press · ISSN 1066-2243 The authors grateful acknowledge the assistance of Graham Spencer, Doug Cutting, Amy Smith and Catherine Yip of EXCITE, Inc. We also thank Mark Wilcox, Leslie Burkett and Nancy Spaid of UNT, and Tefko Saracevic of Rutgers University, and the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the development of this research. Web searching may also be characterized as an interactive process that proceeds in a dynamic way at different levels. An important part of users’ interactions with IR systems is their patterns of successive searches over time related to the same or evolving information problem. The next section of the paper discusses what we know about users’ successive searches on IR systems. Successive searching Humans seek information in stages over extended periods as their information problem changes (Kuhlthau, 1993) and use different types of IR systems during an information seeking process (i.e. Web, CD-ROMs). Recent research in the IR context shows that users with a broader problem-at-hand often seek information in stages over extended periods and use a variety of information resources (Spink, 1996). As time progresses, many users search the same or possibly different interactive systems (digital libraries, IR systems, Web services) for answers to the same or evolving problem-at-hand (Bateman, 1998). The process of conducting related or successive searches over time in relation to a given, possibly evolving information problem (including changes or shifts in beliefs, and cognitive, affective, and situational states) is called successive searching (Spink et al., 1998c). For example, an MBA student conducts a broad search of the CD-ROM database Management