 Differences between novice and experienced users in searching information on the World Wide WebArd W. Lazonder, Harm J.A. Biemans and Iwan G.J.H. Wopereis Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 2000, vol. 51, issue 6, 576-581 Abstract: Searching for information on the World Wide Web (WWW) basically comes down to locating an appropriate Web site and to retrieving relevant information from that site. This study examined the effect of a user's WWW experience on both phases of the search process. Twenty‐five students from two schools for Dutch pre‐university education were observed while performing three search tasks. The results indicate that subjects with WWW‐experience are more proficient in locating Web sites than are novice WWW‐users. The observed differences were ascribed to the experts' superior skills in operating Web search engines. However, on tasks that required subjects to locate information on specific Web sites, the performance of experienced and novice users was equivalent—a result that is in line with hypertext research. Based on these findings, implications for training and supporting students in searching for information on the WWW are identified. Finally, the role of the subjects' level of domain expertise is discussed and directions for future research are proposed. Date: 2000 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jamest:v:51:y:2000:i:6:p:576-581 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article More articles in Journal of the American Society for Information Science from Association for Information Science & Technology |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.