Ingrid Hsieh-Yee
School of Library and Information Science
Catholic University of America
E-mail: hsiehyee@cua.edu

Search Tactics of Web Users in Searching
for Texts, Graphics, Known Items and Subjects:
A Search Simulation Study

Research Grant Report and Contributed Papers Session
Wednesday, February 12, 1997, 2:00pm - 3:30pm

This study examines the search tactics used by Web users to start their searches and deal with search problems such as too many postings and no relevant postings. Four search topics were developed to allow for comparison of search tactics used in four types of searches. The tactics analyzed include search statements, number of search statements, starting points, and tactics to solve the two search problems mentioned above. Search statements were searched in Alta Vista to determine their success and their nature was analyzed. With regard to the tactics used to address search problems, t-tests and chi-square tests found no difference between searches for texts and searches for graphic information, and between known-item searches and subject searches. Some of the Web users' search tactics were similar to those for online searching or online catalog searches, but several tactics were unique to Web searching.

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