Browsing Strategies

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Notes:

• For this question, users were asked what strategies they use when browsing the Web: Hotlist (users revisiting pages they have added to their hotlist), Index (using search engines such as Lycos), Meta-index (using large indices such as Yahoo), Opportunistic (following links from page to page as they are encountered), and URL (typing in known URLs).

• For this question, users were allowed to mark more than one answer.

• Once again, all categories had very high percentages. As in the fourth survey, the highest was Hotlist (84.7%) but the lowest changed from typing URLS to using Meta-indices (65.1%).

• The percentages for Hotlist, URL, and Index (or Search) have risen since the fourth survey while percentages for Meta-indices and Opportunistic strategies have dropped.

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Notes:

• Females reported a higher use of opportunistic searching than did males (78.0% female, 67.7% male).

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Notes:

• Older respondents reported relying on their hotlist more than younger respondents.

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Table of Data for All Categories

search.modes.Index	All	Male	Female	USA	Europe	19-25	26-50	50+
Index	5125 77.43%	3343 80.94%	1255 72.80%	3423 77.74%	504 85.42%	1018 78.25%	2869 79.58%	388 77.14%
Metaindex	4309 65.10%	2737 66.27%	1142 66.24%	2998 68.09%	341 57.80%	812 62.41%	2468 68.46%	340 67.59%
Opportunistic	4610 69.65%	2795 67.68%	1345 78.02%	3218 73.09%	347 58.81%	921 70.79%	2534 70.29%	356 70.78%
URL	4746 71.70%	3084 74.67%	1208 70.07%	3294 74.81%	415 70.34%	954 73.33%	2635 73.09%	380 75.55%
hotlist	5607 84.71%	3623 87.72%	1389 80.57%	3776 85.76%	503 85.25%	1060 81.48%	3184 88.32%	462 91.85%

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For more information or to submit comments:
send e-mail to www-survey@cc.gatech.edu.

GVU's WWW Surveying Team
Graphics, Visualization, & Usability Center
College of Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0280