A comparison of conversational chatbots and the internet for consumer information search

Wondwesen Tafesse and Yoseph Mamo

Behaviour and Information Technology, 2026, vol. 45, issue 2, 314-331

Abstract: This study compares consumer perceptions of conversational chatbots and the internet for information search. While the internet is a mature platform, conversational chatbots represent an emerging technology, and insight into how consumers view them in relation to the internet for information search is lacking. Drawing on the information source utility perspective, the study builds a comparative model based on four key dimensions: information currency, information customisation, information trustworthiness, and media richness. Additionally, the study investigates consumers’ prior experience with conversational chatbots as a moderating factor. Data was collected from 191 respondents recruited through MTurk. Paired sample t-tests assessed mean differences between the internet and conversational chatbots along the four dimensions of information source utility, while ANOVA assessed the effect of prior experience on the mean differences. The findings show that the internet is perceived as a superior platform across all four dimensions. Perceived gaps were wider for the information currency and media richness dimensions, but were narrower for the information customisation and information trustworthiness dimensions. Furthermore, consumers with greater prior chatbot experience perceived narrower gaps between the internet and conversational chatbots across all four dimensions than those with less experience. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0144929X.2025.2517215 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tbitxx:v:45:y:2026:i:2:p:314-331

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/tbit20

DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2025.2517215

Access Statistics for this article

Behaviour and Information Technology is currently edited by Dr Panos P Markopoulos

More articles in Behaviour and Information Technology from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().