Searching through cyberspace: The effects of link cues and correspondence on information retrieval from hypertext on the World Wide Web

✍ Scribed by Khan, Kushal ;Locatis, Craig

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 62 KB
• Volume: 49
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0002-8231
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4571(1998)49:14<1248::aid-asi3>3.0.co;2-g

✦ Synopsis

The effects of link cues and link correspondence on search performance were investigated using a core hypertext document with external links to other resources on the World Wide Web. Although subjects were to search for information in the core document, cues indicating links were to resources outside the search space did not affect performance. Subjects were not explicitly told the meaning of the cues and the duration of the search tasks was not sufficient for subjects to surmise their meaning. Correspondence of wording in search tasks to wording in links positively affected search efficiency, but not search accuracy. The implications of this finding and the need for further research are discussed.