Let's Google: Uncertainty and bilingual search

Margaret Meiling Luo and Diane Nahl

Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, 2019, vol. 70, issue 9, 1014-1025

Abstract: This study applies Kuhlthau's Information Search Process stage (ISP) model to understand bilingual users' Internet search experience. We conduct a quasi‐field experiment with 30 bilingual searchers and the results suggested that the ISP model was applicable in studying searchers' information retrieval behavior in search tasks. The ISP model was applicable in studying searchers' information retrieval behavior in simple tasks. However, searchers' emotional responses differed from those of the ISP model for a complex task. By testing searchers using different search strategies, the results suggested that search engines with multilanguage search functions provide an advantage for bilingual searchers in the Internet's multilingual environment. The findings showed that when searchers used a search engine as a tool for problem solving, they might experience different feelings in each ISP stage than in searching for information for a term paper using a library. The results echo other research findings that indicate that information seeking is a multifaceted phenomenon.

Date: 2019
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