1996 Survey of User Information Needs and Search Methods Results

3.6 Assessment of Internet Tools and Resources

Respondents were asked to give an overall assessment of any search tools they used and evaluate a number of characteristics of each tool. For each characteristic they assigned a rating, in a range from 1 to 5. The results were analysed by calculating values for each category, which are set out in the table below. (The values were calculated by deriving a score for each characteristic based on desirability and multiplying that score by the percentage of responses for each search tool. Appendix H contains the original ratings for all categories.)

3.6.1 Assessment of Internet Search Tools

Score and Rank
Assessment category	Lycos	Web Crawler	Yahoo	Infoseek	Alta Vista	BUBL	Harvest
Assessed by	227	2	169	3	278	1	149	5	155	4	107	6	29	7
Freq of Use	287	3	247	6	296	2	278	4	325	1	263	5	169	7
Ease Of Use	363	3	340	5	374	2	346	4	385	1	320	6	252	7
Speed	273	4	248	6	277	3	258	5	332	1	283	2	200	7
Matches	192	5	190	6	193	4	203	1	201	2	196	3	117	7
Desc quality	200	3	172	6	197	4	203	2	212	1	197	4	152	7
Relevance	212	5	173	6	232	2	214	4	250	1	225	3	162	7
Overall rating	278	2	245	5	274	3	251	4	325	1	244	6	172	7

Alta Vista obtained the highest overall ranking, scored highest on ease of use, speed, quality of description and relevance of matches

Lycos was given the second highest overall ranking, although its score on each category was average or below.

Yahoo was in third place overall, although it scored highly on ease of use and relevance, but badly on quality of description and relevance of matches.

Infoseek, Web Crawler and BUBL obtained very similar scores overall, resulting in closely ranked 4th, 5th and 6th positions. Infoseek scored well on number of matches and quality of description, but poorly on all other aspects.

Web Crawler was worse than average on all categories. BUBL scored poorly on ease of use and quality of description, but was ranked in middle position or above, on all other categories.

Harvest - had the worst overall rating with poor assessment on all categories. However it is important to note that the number of assessments of Harvest was much lower than any other category. This is consistent with a low level of awareness (see Section 3.5.2.c).

3.6.2 Useful Internet Sites and Directories

Respondents were asked to identify any useful Internet sites or directories, within subject area, and indicate one of more reasons for use. The information provided will be analysed in detail, with the aim of producing a `bank' of quality controlled resources for use in the ADAM prototype.

3.7 Future Developments

63% of all respondents, across a range of roles/function and subject groups, indicated that they would be interested in taking part in evaluation of ADAM and regular consultation during its development. Appendix I gives a breakdown of these respondents.

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