Website entries from a web log file perspective : a new log file measure
Philipp Mayr · E-LIS Repository (University of Naples Federico II) · 2004
Introduction Web log files record user transactions on webservers and offer due to their extent, their properties and potential an excellent investigation field for contemporary information and online behaviour studies [see also Nicholas et al., 1999]. Web log files actually offer the possibility to extract information about user access pattern, site visibility and site interlinking [see also Thelwall, 2001]. Furthermore web log file are excellent sources for informational investigations such as tracking spider behaviour, search engine query analysis or cognitive ergonomics. A drill down analysis to the smallest website entity (a specific web page) and also to other web entities, like directories or sites [see also Thelwall, 2003] can be performed with log data. This facilitates counting information usage frequencies on different levels of a website and enables new forms of information studies (e.g. finding regularities). Practical website insights for site access optimisation/evaluat