Research Article

Characterizing Web users' online information behavior

  1. Chun-Yao Huang1,
  2. Yung-Cheng Shen2,
  3. I-Ping Chiang3,
  4. Chen-Shun Lin4

Article first published online: 3 AUG 2007

DOI: 10.1002/asi.20669

Issue

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology

Volume 58, Issue 13, pages 1988–1997, November 2007

Additional Information

How to Cite

Huang, C.-Y., Shen, Y.-C., Chiang, I.-P. and Lin, C.-S. (2007), Characterizing Web users' online information behavior. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci., 58: 1988–1997. doi: 10.1002/asi.20669

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Business Administration, National Taiwan University, 1, Section 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, Taiwan

  2. 2

    Department of Business Administration, Yuan Ze University, 135 Yuandong Road, Jongli, Taoyuan, Taiwan

  3. 3

    Institute of Information Management, National Taipei University, 151 University Road, Sanxia, Taipei, Taiwan

  4. 4

    School of Statistics, Renmin University of China, No. 59, Zhongguancun Street, Hai Dian District, Beijing, China

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 25 OCT 2007
  2. Article first published online: 3 AUG 2007
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 8 NOV 2006
  4. Manuscript Revised: 29 MAR 2006
  5. Manuscript Received: 29 NOV 2005

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Abstract

Although the body of literature pertaining to the study of micro, context-specific behavior on the Web is growing, there lacks a global, macro analysis as to the behavioral dimensions of Web users' online activities. In an attempt to fill in the gap, this study proposes a three-dimensional, cubic typology for the characterization of Web users' online information behavior. We discuss a set of hypotheses concerning the relationships among these dimensions as well as those between these dimensions and related behavioral aspects. Online panel data consisting of month-long clickstreams of 2,022 Web users obtained from InsightXplore, Taiwan are made available for the empirical validation of the hypotheses. We found that a Web user's width (i.e., number of categories of Web sites explored), length (i.e., number of sites visited per category), and depth (i.e., number of pages downloaded per site) of online information behavior are highly correlated. Furthermore, these three dimensions of the behavioral “cube” are positively associated with speed of navigation, but negatively associated with the Web users' explicit online information search propensity and the degree of relatedness among the sites they visited.

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