Search results

Purpose — To provide an overview of recent research that examined how search engine users evaluate and select Web search results and how alternative search engine interfaces can support Web users' credibility assessment of Web search results.

Design/methodology/approach — As theoretical background, Information Foraging Theory (Pirolli, 2007; Pirolli & Card, 1999) from cognitive science and Prominence-Interpretation-Theory (Fogg, 2003) from communication and persuasion research are presented. Furthermore, a range of recent empirical research that investigated the effects of alternative SERP layouts on searchers' information quality or credibility assessments of search results are reviewed and approaches that aim at automatically classifying search results according to specific genre categories are reported.

Findings — The chapter reports on findings that Web users often rely heavily on the ranking provided by the search engines without paying much attention to the reliability or trustworthiness of the Web pages. Furthermore, the chapter outlines how alternative search engine interfaces that display search results in a format different from a list and/or provide prominent quality-related cues in the SERPs can foster searchers' credibility evaluations.

Research limitations/implications — The reported empirical studies, search engine interfaces, and Web page classification systems are not an exhaustive list.

Originality/value — The chapter provides insights for researchers, search engine developers, educators, and students on how the development and use of alternative search engine interfaces might affect Web users' search and evaluation strategies during Web search as well as their search outcomes in terms of retrieving high-quality, credible information.

How do you efficiently design a global yet local user experience for Web sites? Arguably, the user-centered design approach has been one of the best methods in designing a successful user experience for Web services in the initial market, but why isn’t this process applied to international markets? This chapter makes a case for applying a user-centered design process to the international expansion of Web sites and discusses issues impacting the creation of a successful user experience for local audiences. Although this chapter primarily focuses on designing large scale Web services, many of the principles can be applied to any sites that undergo internationalization.

Purpose: Many Internet users search for health information but they struggle with assessing the quality of the information they find. By drawing on a multi-modal approach to data collection, this study aims to understand further the nuanced cognitive processes that people utilize as they acquire and evaluate online health information.

Design: We used a mixed-methods approach that includes surveys, interviews, and observations of 76 diverse adults of all ages in the Chicago area completing various health information-seeking tasks.

Findings: Most participants begin their information-seeking process on search engines. We identified the most popular credibility-assessment strategies used on the search engine results’ pages (SERP) as well as on websites. We also explored how the process of executing such strategies reveals greater and lesser savvy among users.

Research Limitations: While the sample size and methods limit its generalizability, this study included a larger and more diverse group of participants than most observational work, which results in data about a wider range of behaviors than is typical of such research.

Social Implications: Our findings showed that most of our participants could use additional education regarding credibility assessment of online health information. Additionally, since a great deal of credibility assessment occurs on SERP, search companies bear a particular responsibility for ensuring the quality of the information their results highlight.

Purpose – To examine whether or not exposing novice teachers in a graduate literacy education diversity course to particular texts and activities focused on economic diversity and lifestyle differences among students makes them more likely to positively respond to these lesser understood forms of diversity in their own teaching and if so, in what ways.

Design – The research design was qualitative and included written reflections from the teacher-participants at the beginning, middle and end of the semester, and videotaping and transcribing activities and post-activity discussions. Ethnographic observations and notes were made by the primary investigator (PI). The theoretical frameworks that were foundational to the study were critical literacy and teaching for social justice.

Findings – The findings of this qualitative study indicate that exposing teachers to texts, discussions, and activities that educate them on economic diversity and lifestyle differences among students makes them more likely to positively respond to these forms of diversity in their own teaching. Specific examples of how participants did this are provided.

Practical Implications – This study contributes to the literature on diversity in literacy instruction by providing concrete, research-based suggestions for how both teacher educators and K-12 teachers can expand their definitions of student diversity to include economic disparities and lifestyle differences among students. It includes recommended texts and activities for both teacher educators and K-12 teachers to address less typical forms of diversity, with a focus on economic diversity and lifestyle differences.

Purpose — To provide a theoretical background to understand current local search engines as an aspect of specialized search, and understand the data sources and used technologies.

Design/methodology/approach — Selected local search engines are examined and compared toward their use of geographic information retrieval (GIR) technologies, data sources, available entity information, processing, and interfaces. An introduction to the field of GIR is given and its use in the selected systems is discussed.

Findings — All selected commercial local search engines utilize GIR technology in varying degrees for information preparation and presentation. It is also starting to be used in regular Web search. However, major differences can be found between the different search engines.

Research limitations/implications — This study is not exhaustive and only uses informal comparisons without definitive ranking. Due to the unavailability of hard data, informed guesses were made based on available public interfaces and literature.

Practical implications — A source of background information for understanding the results of local search engines, their provenance, and their potential.

Originality/value — An overview of GIR technology in the context of commercial search engines integrates research efforts and commercial systems and helps to understand both sides better.

Research has shown evidence of the use of impression management strategies in corporate disclosures as a means of presumably tempering and swaying investors’ perceptions. These impression management strategies include shifts in the tone used when providing disclosures. However, recent research also provides evidence that such techniques can have a contrary effect when the tone of the message appears to be “too good to be true.” This study explores how the use of optimism and certainty in the Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) portion of the annual report affects nonprofessional investors’ investment decisions – a class of investors known to heavily rely on the MD&A portion of annual reports. We theorize a bifurcated effect where optimism and certainty have a positive and direct effect on investor willingness to invest, but at the same time optimism and certainty have a negative indirect effect on willingness to invest that is mediated through decreased perceptions of disclosure credibility. The results provide evidence supporting such a bifurcated effect from the use of tone in management disclosures.

Purpose: Previous research has found that people’s trust in a source of information affects whether they will expose themselves to information from that source, pay attention to that source, and the likelihood that they will act on the information obtained from that source. This study tracked trends in levels of trust in different health information sources over time and investigated sociodemographic predictors of trust in these sources.

Methodology/Approach: Data were drawn from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS), a nationally representative, cross-sectional survey of adults in the USA. Weighted percentages, means, and standard errors for trust in health information sources were computed using data from four iterations of the survey (2005, 2009, 2012, and 2013). Weighted multivariable logistic regression models were employed to investigate associations between sociodemographic variables and level of trust in health information sources using HINTS 2013 data.

Findings: Trend analyses revealed declining trust in “traditional” mass media channels, such as television and radio, for health information and consistently high trust in interpersonal sources, like physicians, over the past decade. Regression analyses showed that those with more education (ORs 2.93–4.59, p < 0.05) and higher incomes (ORs 1.65–2.09, p < 0.05) were more likely to trust the Internet for health information than those with less education and lower incomes. Non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics were more likely to trust mass media channels in comparison to Non-Hispanic Whites (ORs 1.73–2.20, p < 0.05).

Implications: These findings can be used to inform the strategic selection of channels for disseminating health information to certain demographic groups.

Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) is a digital marketing method that has been considered by some companies as an effective and efficient approach to enhance social learning and the environment for the customers. A social media user could benefit from gaining information from other users to aid their decision-making process. Instagram is an example of a social media platform that could be utilized for the application of eWOM. It could serve as a source of quality, credible and detailed information, and a channel to increase customer interactions and trust. This study aims to determine the effects of eWOM information generated through Instagram on patients’ intention to join the in vitro fertilization (IVF) programs. By adopting the information acceptance model (IACM) theory, several parameters were evaluated: information quality, credibility, usefulness, adoption, attitude toward information, and purchase intention. The structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze as many as 200 respondents of Morula IVF Jakarta and were active Instagram users. The results showed that the adoption of information and attitude toward information had considerably influenced patients’ intentions to join the IVF programs. Such circumstances might have occurred as a result of the increase in information exchange about IVF, through the discussions and sharing of experiences by patients on Instagram. Furthermore, information usefulness was demonstrated to affect information adoption and was influenced by the credibility of information and attitudes toward information. Nonetheless, one variable which did not display any effects on the usefulness of information was the quality of information. In summary, the characteristics of eWOM information that were conveyed on Instagram could affect the intention of patients in joining the IVF program.

This study develops a typology of web site structure and then makes a cross-national comparison between Korea and Australia. Using a content analysis method, the study classifies 383 corporate web sites based on the typology. The study identifies two general types of web site structure: the hypermedia type and static image type and uses cluster analysis and discriminant analysis to verify the results. The study then tests predictions as to which type of web site will be more prominent in Australia versus Korea based on cultural factors. Results show that Korean firms employ the hypermedia type more frequently, whereas Australian companies are more prone to use the static image type. Cultural factors and industry-based factors are used to explain the results.