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An exploratory study conducted in late autumn and early winter 2006-2007 investigates the purchasing of sponsored search advertising for a major US university’s academic department. The ad campaign used Google’s AdWord service with the goal of increasing awareness of the academic department and encouraging potential graduate admissions or admissions inquiries. A behavioural model of information seeking is suggested that could be applied for selecting appropriate types of online advertising for awareness and other advertising goals. The study found little overlap between traditional, commerce-oriented online advertising methods and a general awareness campaign, as evidenced by a low click-through rate to the targeted site. Insights for future studies include increased integration with server logs, targeted site query terms and alternative awareness strategies.

The Next Big Thing is being grown organically, cultivated by software developers and pruned by personal Weblog publishers. The rising Weblogging space of the Internet is looking more like traditional hypertext than the Web of the 1990s. The ways in which Weblogging has evolved beyond the previous limitations of the Web as hypertext, and the ways Weblogging is evolving towards common-use hypertext destined to play a critical role in everyday life, will be explored. We have a vision of a universal information management system built on extending the traditional hypertext framework. In our utopian future, everyone will use tools descended from today’s blogs to structure, search and share personal information, as well as to participate in shared discussion. We begin by expressing a vision of common-use hypertext for information management and interpersonal communication. This vision is grounded in the rapid evolution of Weblogs and known issues in information systems and hypertext. The practical implications of who will use these systems, and how, is expanded as usage scenarios for Weblogs now and in the future. After recapping the current issues facing the Weblogging community, we look to the long-range implementation issues with optimism. Our system is forward-looking yet realistic. The activities the system will support are extrapolated from recent developments in the online community, and most of the sketches of implementation are based on current approaches. It is of more than passing interest that the features we extrapolate were all described by Nelson as early hypertext ideals. Of particular interest is that the features are now being implemented because of perceived immediate need by communities of interest.

The paper presents findings from a study of how knowledge workers use the Web to seek external information as part of their daily work. Thirty four users from seven companies took part in the study. Participants were mainly IT specialists, managers, and research/marketing/consulting staff working in organizations that included a large utility company, a major bank, and a consulting firm. Participants answered a detailed questionnaire and were interviewed individually in order to understand their information needs and information seeking preferences. A custom-developed WebTracker software application was installed on each of their workplace PCs, and participants’ Web-use activities were then recorded continuously during two-week periods. The WebTracker recorded how participants used the browser to seek information on the Web: it logged menu choices, button bar selections, and keystroke actions, allowing browsing and searching sequences to be reconstructed. In a second round of personal interviews, participants recalled critical incidents of using information from the Web.

Data from the two interviews and the WebTracker logs constituted the database for analysis. Sixty one significant episodes of information seeking were identified. A model was developed to describe the common repertoires of information seeking that were observed. On one axis of the model, episodes were plotted according to the four scanning modes identified by Aguilar (1967), Weick and Daft (1983): undirected viewing, conditioned viewing, informal search, and formal search. Each mode is characterized by its own information needs and information seeking strategies. On the other axis of the model, episodes were plotted according to the occurence of one or more of the six categories of information seeking behaviors identified by Ellis (1989, 1990): starting, chaining, browsing, differentiating, monitoring, and extracting. The study suggests that a behavioral framework that relates motivations (Aguilar) and moves (Ellis) may be helpful in analysing patterns of Web-based information seeking.

This paper investigates how knowledge workers utilize the Web to seek external information as part of their daily work. Thirty four participants from seven companies were interviewed about their information needs and preferences. In addition, a custom-developed software application recorded each participant’s Web behavior for a two week monitoring period. To understand better the significant episodes of activity identified in the Web tracking logs, a second round of personal interviews was conducted. The study found that people who use the Web as part of their work engage in four complementary modes of undirected viewing, conditioned viewing, informal search, and formal search. Moreover, each mode is characterized by information seeking moves based on recurrent sequences of browser functions and features. Based on these findings, a model of Web use is presented, as well as some suggestions for supporting and enhancing Web information seeking in organizations.

This paper develops a new behavioral model of information seeking on the Web by combining theoretical elements from information science and organization science. The model was tested during the first phase of a study of how managers and information technology (IT) specialists use the Web to seek external information as part of their daily work. Participants answered a questionnaire and were interviewed individually in order to understand their information needs and information seeking preferences. A custom-developed tracker application was installed on their workplace computers, or their browsers were redirected through a proxy server set up by the research team. Participants’ Web-use activities were then monitored continuously for two work weeks. The tracker application recorded participants’ Web browser actions, while the proxy recorded HTTP requests and transfers. In a follow-up round of personal interviews, participants recalled critical incidents of using information from the Web. Data from the questionnaire, interviews, and the tracker and server log files supplied a rich database for study. Results were found to be compatible with the behavioral model proposed. Overall, the study suggests that a behavioral framework which relates motivations (strategies and modes of viewing and searching) and moves (tactics used to find and use information) may be helpful in analyzing Web-based information seeking. Findings also suggest that multiple, complementary methods of collecting qualitative and quantitative data may be used within a single study to compose a richer portrayal of how individuals seek and use Web-based information in their natural work settings.