Differences between novice and experienced users in searching information on the World Wide Web
Abstract
Lazonder, Biemans, and Wopereis observed 25 fourth grade students divided into novice and expert classes on the basis of self reported World Wide Web experience and a proficiency test. No significant differences were found among the subjects in domain expertise (based on standard test performance), gender or ethnic background. Each subject preformed three 13 minute search and browse assignments where site location and information location were treated separately. Time and success were recorded, combined to produce an efficiency value, and the number of actions carried out to correctly solve a task was recorded as effectiveness. Experts preformed significantly faster and better on search engine search for sites than did novices. However, no differences were apparent in the search for information within the sites using the hypertext links available. This argues that user training should concentrate on site location, and only touch on hypertext browsing. (http://www.asis.org/Publications/JASIS/vol51n0600.html)