The Impact of User Knowledge on Web Search Satisfaction

Problem statement: Searching on the web is a tedious process as it requires knowledge and skills on what and how to search. What to search is basically, the core of the searching activity as it represents the need of the searcher. How to search is related to the knowledge on how the facilities available on the web can be utilized in order to achieve the needs. Search satisfaction is the level of measurement that describes the achievement of the searcher towards his/her information needs. Approach: In this study, two categories of knowledge: Topic understanding and web search system understanding have been identified to contribute to the search satisfaction. These knowledge was measured based on objective and subjective knowledge. The statistical analysis is employed study the impact of these knowledge on search satisfaction. Results: The Linear Regression analysis confirms that both topic and search system understanding are equally important since they are significantly associated with search satisfaction. Conclusions/Recommendations: This finding proves that user knowledge is an important aspect in searching activities. This finding can benefit the search system provider when updating their search system facilities especially query processing, matching and manipulation engine.