Browsing for Information on the Web and in the File System

摘要

Browsing is one of the methods used for finding and refinding information on the web or in the file local system and there are opportunities to avoid this, particularly if that information is revisited frequently. We present empirical results from a field study contrasting patterns of browsing to local and web information and we qualify the cost that this navigation method incurs. In addition, we provide an improved method for defining revisit behavior and report on the level of revisits during our study. Our findings have implications for solution development that reduce user effort for finding and refinding information.