IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jamist/v62y2011i4p761-775.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Not just information: Who searches for what on the search engine Google?

Author

Listed:
  • Vivienne Waller

Abstract

This paper reports on a transaction log analysis of the type and topic of search queries entered into the search engine Google (Australia). Two aspects, in particular, set this apart from previous studies: the sampling and analysis take account of the distribution of search queries, and lifestyle information of the searcher was matched with each search query. A surprising finding was that there was no observed statistically significant difference in search type or topics for different segments of the online population. It was found that queries about popular culture and Ecommerce accounted for almost half of all search engine queries and that half of the queries were entered with a particular Website in mind. The findings of this study also suggest that the Internet search engine is not only an interface to information or a shortcut to Websites, it is equally a site of leisure. This study has implications for the design and evaluation of search engines as well as our understanding of search engine use.

Suggested Citation

  • Vivienne Waller, 2011. "Not just information: Who searches for what on the search engine Google?," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 62(4), pages 761-775, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jamist:v:62:y:2011:i:4:p:761-775
    DOI: 10.1002/asi.21492
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.21492
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/asi.21492?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kimberly N. Hill‐Tout & Roberta Hawkins, 2023. "Accessorizing development: Fundraising bracelets for International Development as a New Development Responsibility," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(7), pages 2046-2066, October.
    2. Anton Oleinik, 2022. "Relevance in Web search: between content, authority and popularity," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 173-194, February.
    3. Jun, Seung-Pyo & Yoo, Hyoung Sun & Choi, San, 2018. "Ten years of research change using Google Trends: From the perspective of big data utilizations and applications," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 69-87.
    4. Rubia Khan & Arif Khan & Sidra Malik & Haroon Idrees, 2017. "Virtual Reference Services through Web Search Engines: Study of Academic Libraries in Pakistan," Publications, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-13, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jamist:v:62:y:2011:i:4:p:761-775. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.asis.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.