From e-sex to e-commerce: Web search changes

Author

Spink, Amanda ; Jansen, Bernard J. ; Wolfram, Dietmar ; Saracevic, Tefko

Author_Institution

Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA, USA

Volume

35

Issue

3

fYear

2002

fDate

3/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

107

Lastpage

109

Abstract

The Web has become a worldwide source of information and a mainstream business tool. Are human information needs and searching behaviors evolving along with Web content? As part of a body of research studying this question, we have analyzed three data sets culled from more than one million queries submitted by more than 200,000 users of the Excite Web search engine, collected in September 1997, December 1999, and May 2001. This longitudinal benchmark study shows that public Web searching is evolving in certain directions. Specifically, search topics have shifted from entertainment and sex to commerce and people, but there is little change in query lengths or frequency per user. Search topics have shifted, but there is little change in user search behaviors

Keywords

Internet; human factors; search engines; Excite Web search engine; Web content; Web search changes; e-commerce; e-sex; information needs; public Web searching; searching behaviors; Computer errors; Counting circuits; Educational institutions; Employment; Frequency; Internet; Military computing; Search engines; Uniform resource locators; Web search;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Computer

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9162

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/2.989940

Filename

989940