 Analyzing URL queriesWei Meng Lee and Mark Sanderson Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2010, vol. 61, issue 11, 2300-2310 Abstract: This study investigated a relatively unexamined query type, queries composed of URLs. The extent, variation, and user click‐through behavior was examined to determine the intent behind URL queries. The study made use of a search log from which URL queries were identified and selected for both qualitative and quantitative analyses. It was found that URL queries accounted for ∼17% of the sample. There were statistically significant differences between URL queries and non‐URL queries in the following attributes: mean query length; mean number of tokens per query; and mean number of clicks per query. Users issuing such queries clicked on fewer result list items higher up the ranking compared to non‐URL queries. Classification indicated that nearly 86% of queries were navigational in intent with informational and transactional queries representing about 7% of URL queries each. This is in contrast to past research that suggested that URL queries were 100% navigational. The conclusions of this study are that URL queries are relatively common and that simply returning the page that matches a user's URL is not an optimal strategy. Date: 2010 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jamist:v:61:y:2010:i:11:p:2300-2310 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 and Technology 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.