The burgeoning growth of interactive media, and more specifically the Wide Web (WWW) will be used interchangeably to represent ''interactive media'' in general since the WWW is currently Internet, as communication vehicles has inspired a flurry of market research that attempts to measure the impact of advertising in the new the dominant example of this medium as an accepted communication vehicle by advertisers and consumers. However, it is media, utilizing traditional advertising measurement methods. However, the full impact of these new media will not be realized unless we engage recognized that other forms of interactive media, yet to be tested, may also embody these characteristics.)
in more thorough research into how to evaluate their potential in terms of their influence on information search behavior. This article seeks to Although existing advertising vehicles, such as TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines, are evaluated both a priori (e.g.,
provide direction for such exploration by proposing a new model of consumer information search that integrates the principles of information
CPM, GRP) and post-exposure (e.g., recall, recognition), based on generally accepted, albeit widely debated, standards of economics and a goods classification model based on the search/experience/ credence paradigm. This model will facilitate a greater understanding by measurement, little is understood about the critical criteria to use at either time for the new media. Complicating the probmarketers and academics of how a medium can influence consumer lem of evaluation is the sheer amount of data that will be information search through its impact on the critical information consummade available to assess the WWW's potential and perforers have access to prior to product usage.