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Towards a Model of Information Scatter: Implications for Search and Design

Bhavnani, Suresh K. and Peck, Frederick A. (2006) Towards a Model of Information Scatter: Implications for Search and Design. In Grove, Andrew, Eds. Proceedings 69th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST) 43, Austin (US).

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Abstract

Recent studies suggest that users often retrieve incomplete healthcare information because of the complex and skewed distribution of facts across relevant webpages. To understand the causes for such skewed distributions, this paper presents the results of two analyses: (1) A distribution analysis discusses how facts related to healthcare topics are scattered across high-quality healthcare pages. (2) A cluster analysis of the same data suggests that the skewed distribution can be explained by the existence of three page profiles that vary in information density, each of which play an important role in providing comprehensive information on a topic. The above analyses provide clues towards a model of information
scatter which describes how the design decisions by individual webpage authors could collectively lead to
the scatter of information as observed in the data. The analyses also suggest implications for the design
of websites, search algorithms, and search interfaces to help users find comprehensive information about
a topic.

Keywords:Healthcare ; Web searching ; Webometrics ; distributions ; information scatter
Subjects:I. Information treatment for information services > IK. Design, development, implementation and maintenance
H. Information sources, supports, channels. > HQ. Web pages.
L. Information technology and library technology. > LC. Internet, including WWW.
ID Code:8043
Deposited By:Medeiros, Norm
Deposited On:06 December 2006
All fields:Show all fields

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