Model-Based Quality Evaluation: A Comparison of Internet Classifieds Operated by Newspapers and Non-Newspaper Firms

The Internet has become an important resource for information. The Internet presents information through web pages and hyperlinks. However, this mode of presentation is not always useful for every purpose. Internet searches are designed to locate and to present information more effectively. The efficiency and usefulness of Internet searches are becoming more and more dependent on the design of web applications. In this paper one type of web application was examined – online classified applications. The differences and similarity of classified web applications were investigated. Classified sites were divided into categories based on the operating organization, i.e. newspapers versus independent organizations. Additionally, the newspapers were grouped by circulation size, i.e. large versus small circulation. This paper developed quality attributes for classified applications and used them to test and evaluate 73 online classifieds. The quality criteria that were used for the evaluation included contextual DQ, accessibility DQ and representation DQ. The results show that both the newspaper-owned and independently owned classified sites showed weaknesses in the area of interactivity. Low newspapers circulation predicted a low quality of classified applications but no corresponding prediction was found for newspapers with high circulation.