How you search is what you get – Strategies of information seeking with Google
Abstract: In the last 15 years, Google has become the market leader for information seeking. Not only is it known by mostly every internet user, the search engine is also used for nearly all search requests. The need for competence in information seeking is clear: ideally, the user does not only know how to use search operators in order to get their results quickly and as requested. He or she also knows how search engines indexes homepages so that they can assess the outcomes of their search. The results of the study, in which internet users were first asked to participate on a survey and second recorded while doing internet seeking (N=17), shows a leak of competences: Even though, the probands assess themselves as “good”, three out of four search operators have only been known in 11% or even not been known at all. This paper shows findings and gives an overview of the actual competences.
Presider: Graham Walton, Loughborough University