“It is easy for all users to find specific information on the World Wide Web”.
Because the web is relatively new in terms of reaching a large percentage of a country’s population, users’ experience, understanding and expertise varies widely. Technically-minded people will arguably have been familiar with the World Wide Web for longer, and therefore be able to find specific information more efficiently, if not more quickly than less experienced users.
Defining ‘easy’ in terms of using the World Wide Web is interesting. In terms of searching for a specific item, it could be defined as ‘the ability to satisfactorily fulfil a task within a short period of time’.
The increasingly plentiful selection of search engines and reference sites on the Internet means that some users will experiment with different engines, whilst others will find one they are satisfied with and make it their first stop when wishing to find information. Users who experiment with a variety of search engines will take longer to familiarise themselves with each individual engine, this can take more time than a user who knows their way around their favourite engine.
A user who is loyal to one or two search engines would therefore find it ‘easy’ to retrieve information, provided their choice of search engine successfully provided the required data. If, however, the chosen search engine were not successful, the user would then have the option of either altering their selection of words, or try again on a completely different engine, one that may be uncharted territory for the user.
I have been loyal to a small number of search engines, because on the whole they have provided the information I require, albeit after attempting a small number of alternative input words or phrases. This loyalty has stemmed from both my becoming more familiar with these engines, and my acceptance that if my chosen search engines or reference sites cannot find the desired information, then it is unlikely I will have any greater success on entirely different ones. Moreover, having become used to a few search engines, namely ProFusion (Intelliseek) and AltaVista seems to lessen the attraction to try those unfamiliar to me, such as HotBot or GoZilla.
The level of experience a person has with both computers and the World Wide Web can help determine what type of user they are. Sutcliffe suggests four categories detailed below,
· Naïve
· Novice
· Skilled (or ‘Experienced’)
· Expert
The first of these – Naïve – refers to someone who has either never used computers before, or who uses them only very occasionally.
While it is true that the internet does seem to lower the attention span of today’s society, it also is the greatest tool of the modern-day. An extensive measure of information that was inaccessible to everyone but a select few in the past is now obtainable by anyone in mere seconds. Through the internet, anyone can
Although media today move towards digital online existence, the vast amount of information on digital platforms demand time and skills that will favor eliete users (Bondebjerg)
Academic OneFile. Web. The Web. The Web. 1 Oct. 2015 -.
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