GVU Technical Report Number:
GIT-GVU-94-40
Title:
Using the Web as a Survey Tool: Results from the Second WWW User Survey
Authors:
James E. Pitkow
Margaret M. Recker
Abstract:
This paper presents the initial results from the second World Wide Web
User Survey, which was advertised and made available to the Web user
population for 38 days during October and November 1994. The survey
is built on our architecture and Web technologies, which together
offer a number of technical and surveying advantages. In particular, our
architecture supports the use of adaptive questions, and supports methods
for tracking users' responses across different surveys, allowing more
in depth analyses of survey responses. The present survey was
composed of 3 question categories: general background questions,
browsing usage, and questions for Web information providers. In
addition, we added an additional, experimental category addressing users'
attitudes toward commercial use of the Web and the Internet. In just
over one month, we received over 18,000 total responses to the combined
surveys. To the best of our knowledge, the number of respondents and
range of questions make this survey the most reliable and comprehensive
characterization of WWW users to date. It will be interesting to see if
and how the user trends shown in our results change as the Web gains in
global access and popularity.
Keywords:
World Wide Web User Surveys, new applications, demographics, tools
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