Information-seeking on the World Wide Web: The effects of searching and browsing strategies on navigational patterns and mental models of navigation in the World Wide Web environment

This study investigates the effects of two information-seeking strategies (searching and browsing) on navigational patterns, mental models of navigation, and learning achievements in Web-based learning environments.; The participants were 24 undergraduates, randomly divided into two groups: the search group was instructed to find answers to questions on a given Web site, while the browse group engaged in undirected browsing on the same Web site. After the experiment, the participants were given tasks measuring Web page recognition, landmark judgment, and route recall to assess their mental navigational models, as well as a posttest to measure learning achievement.; The details of participants' searching/browsing activities were recorded for navigational pattern analysis. The following analyses were performed on these data: process measures-number of navigational moves, number of pages accessed, average viewing time per page, and number of uses of backtracking; search achievement; graphical path diagram; and path metrics-compactness and stratum.; A significant relationship between information-seeking strategies and navigation patterns was found. Searchers employed more navigational actions and visited more Web pages than did browsers. The navigational paths of searchers were more interconnected and less directional than those of browsers. Subjects' familiarity with the Internet and with the topic significantly influenced search achievement.; Analysis of navigational knowledge data showed that both groups developed landmark knowledge well but not route knowledge. Browsers were more accurate in identifying the Web pages they had viewed than searchers. Additionally, most searchers developed landmark knowledge based on Web page visitation frequency and viewing time. There was no significant difference between the learning outcomes of the two groups.; Finally, this study proposes a framework for future research into information-seeking on the Web. Four major components were identified-Web structure, navigational path, navigational knowledge, and semantic knowledge. This study suggests mapping these four layers of Web navigation data together. This provides a more coherent and global picture of information-seeking behavior on the Web.