Characteristics of Information on the Web

Dania BilalIS 530

Fall 2005

The Web

Heterogeneous Dynamic Hypertext & hypermedia

cognitive overloaddisorientation

The Web

Structure of information Information overload Authority Inappropriate materials

• Filtering issues

Web Spaces

Search /directory space Web browser space

• Navigation efficiencyVariables

• Navigation effectivenessVariables

Web Spaces

Search engine

Web browser

The Web

Text-centered (mostly) Efforts to read texts online Advertisements Instant gratification Exploration & discovery

The Web

Plagiarism Evaluation of retrieved information Relevance judgment Social issues Information literacy

The Web

Mental maturity (content vs. ads) Reading long texts online Sifting through K-Z of results Composing adequate search strings Identification of authoritative information

Web Databases System-based

relevance (Google: popularity ranking)

Sponsored sites may appear first

Lacks structure (no thesauri, controlled vocabulary, etc.)

Lacks authority

System-based relevance (other methods)

No sponsored sites Well-structured

(thesauri, controlled vocabulary, metadata standards, etc.)

Authoritative

Web Databases Information overload

• Cognitive overload• Gratification vs.

negative affect

Engines more general in nature

Item availability is questionable (dead links, error codes)

Less information overload• cognitive overload

varies• Gratification >positive

affect

Many specialized databases

Item availability?

How Search Engines Work? Search Engine Resources

http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/article.php/2168031 (how search engines work)

http://www.searchengineworld.com/misc/resource.htm (search engine resources)

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Help/search.html (recommended search engines)