Factors Influencing Web Search Strategies.
Marilyn Domas White, Mirja Iivonen · 1999
The Internet has changed information searching considerably. If information searching in atraditional search environment, such as online databases and library catalogs, is still regarded mainly as acompetency area of professional intermediaries, searching on the World Wide Web (web) is, at leasttheoretically, every man's right and commonplace. On one hand the web offers new possibilities forsearching for information searching. It provides access to a huge amount of information and can beaccessed (with the appropriate equipment) from everywhere and at any time. For example, people inFinland can easily follow what is going on in the United States in a wide range of subjects. On the other hand, the web also creates an illusion about finding correct or appropriate informationeasily. New difficulties in information searching arise because of the enormous, fuzzy, and rapidlychanging nature of the web. Users often become overloaded with too much information, too many sites,and too many links to be followed. They may experience difficulties in evaluating and selecting relevantdocuments. Many times they do not even know where or how to search. Users may also become frustratedbecause of badly designed web sites where relevant information is not to be found. At the same time thatthe Internet brings information close to the user, it also demands that he pay more attention to evaluating,filtering, and selecting documents. On the basis of previous studies, major features of information searching on the web can besummarized briefly as follows:1)