Search

Purpose: During COVID-19 restrictions, people spent more time in cyberspace and consuming health-related information. An increase was also observed in mediated caring messages or health-relevant information sent to one another. This study aims to explore how the information and interactions around COVID-19 can provide a good learning opportunity for public health, specifically related to eHealth literacy and eHealth promotion. Design/methodology/approach: While mainstream literature has concentrated on experimental designs and a priming effect, this study inspects psychological distance related to a health threat under real-life circumstances. The article adopted a survey approach and utilized PLS-SEM techniques to examine the proposed hypotheses. Findings: Results indicated that whereas closer social support correlates with closer psychological distance and less usage of the social media approach, more substantial COVID-19 impacts were associated with closer psychological distance but greater use of social media. Since both closer psychological distance and social media approach contribute to eHealth literacy, social support from closer and virtual social networks should be embraced but utilized through different routes and for different purposes. The timing of messages but not psychological distance affects people's social media approach, indicating that morning messages should be employed. Moreover, eHealth literacy mediates timing preferences and leads to a preference for eHealth communication earlier in the day. Overall, morning messages create a virtuous circle during a health crisis. Originality/value: This paper establishes a mechanism of virtuous cycles for eHealth communication during a health threat. Additionally, it bridges existing research gaps by expanding chronopsychology and CLT in the health domain using an empirical approach, a real-life case and an extension of performance regarding information-seeking and utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- Conducting academic searches within online digital libraries can be a difficult task due to the complexity of the searcher's information need. The interfaces for such digital libraries commonly use simple search features that provide limited support for the fundamental strategies that academic searchers employ. The authors have developed a novel visualisation interface called Bow Tie Academic Search to address some of these shortcomings, and present in this paper the findings from a user evaluation. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach -- A controlled laboratory study was conducted to compare a traditional search interface to Bow Tie Academic Search. In total, 24 graduate students were recruited to perform academic searches using the two candidate interfaces, guided by specific sub-tasks that focus on citation and keyword analysis strategies. Findings -- Although the use of the core visualisation and exploration features did not reveal differences in retrieval effectiveness or efficiency, the query refinement features were found to be effective. Strongly positive impressions of usefulness and ease of use of all aspects of the system were reported, along with a preference for using Bow Tie Academic Search for academic search tasks. Originality/value -- This study provides insight into the potential value for providing visual and interactive interfaces for supporting academic search tasks and strategies. While the quantitative improvements over the traditional search interface were minimal, the qualitative measures illustrate the value of Bow Tie Academic Search. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The impact of innovative web portals on users, from access to application, is gaining interest as the global call for increased data availability gains momentum. This study reports on the perceptions of portal end users about usage and access to digital data across a range of fields of practice. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected and analysed from interviews (n = 132) and email feedback (n = 235) from end users of interoperable spatial knowledge web portals. Findings: Data reveal that users attribute importance to ease of access and applicability, and to confidence and trust in data. The acquisition of data assists with reducing knowledge silos, facilitates knowledge sharing and decision-making. Digital data portals enable the building of stronger collaborations between different groups of individuals and communities leading to improved outcomes and more positive developments across varied discipline and practice areas. Practical implications: Recommendations for developing online portals to optimise knowledge transfer and associated benefits, for users, are offered. Originality/value: By collecting extensive qualitative data drawn from the experiences of end users of digital data portals, this paper provides new insights, thereby addressing a knowledge gap in the published literature about the use of technology uptake and the application of online data for practice and industry benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the rules and rituals for joining and operating within underground music file sharing communities as well as the members' motivations for joining. Design/methodology/approach – Actor-network theory is combined with an ethnographic methodology to explore the structure, technology and rules of these communities from an actor-oriented, member perspective. Empirical data include in-depth interviews with three file sharers, and participant-observations for 120 days within an online community. Findings – The paper provides an increased understanding of the structured and orderly nature of underground music file sharing communities and the perceived importance of strong rules and rituals for membership. Many communities use the same open-source software. Research limitations/implications – Only a small number of file sharers (three) were interviewed. However they provide rich insights into this under-researched topic. Practical implications – An understanding of these sophisticated underground file sharing communities assists the further development of legitimate online music systems to appeal to the large number of individuals involved in music file sharing communities. Social implications – This paper provides an understanding of the practices within a subculture that is currently regarded as deviant and illegal, and contributes to the discussion and policy formulation on file sharing. Originality/value – This study is the only known ethnography investigating underground music file sharing communities. These communities have not been systematically studied previously and the paper addresses this lack of research literature. This study is also novel as it applies actor-network theory to a context to which it has not previously been applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose With the development of the internet, huge numbers of reviews are generated, disseminated, and shared on e-commerce and social media websites by internet users. These reviews usually indicate users’ opinions about products or services directly, and are thus valuable for efficient marketing. The purpose of this paper is to mine online users’ attitudes from a huge pool of reviews via automatic question answering.Design/methodology/approach The authors make use of online reviews to complete an online investigation via automatic question answering (AQA). In the process of AQA, question generation and extraction of corresponding answers are conducted via sentiment computing. In order to verify the performance of AQA for online investigation, online reviews from a well-known travel website, namely Tuniu.com, are used as the experimental data set. Finally, the experimental results from AQA vs a traditional questionnaire are compared.Findings The experimental results show that results between the AQA-based automatic questionnaire and the traditional questionnaire are consistent. Hence, the AQA method is reliable in identifying users’ attitudes. Although this paper takes Chinese tourism reviews as the experimental data, the method is domain and language independent.Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to use the AQA method to mine users’ attitudes towards tourism services. Using online reviews may overcome problems with using traditional questionnaires, such as high costs and long cycle for questionnaire design and answering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose With the development and application of mobile internet access, social media represented by Weibo, WeChat, etc. has become the main channel for information release and sharing. High-impact users in social networks are key factors stimulating the large-scale propagation of information within social networks. User influence is usually related to the user’s attention rate, activity level, and message content. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the authors focused on Sina Weibo users, centered on users’ behavior and interactive information, and formulated a weighted interactive information network model, then present a novel computational model for Weibo user influence, which combined multiple indexes such as the user’s attention rate, activity level, and message content influence, etc., the model incorporated the time dimension, through the calculation of users’ attribute influence and interactive influence, to comprehensively measure the user influence of Sina Weibo users.Findings Compared with other models, the model reflected the dynamics and timeliness of the user influence in a more accurate way. Extensive experiments are conducted on the real-world data set, and the results validate the performance of the approach, and demonstrate the effectiveness of the dynamics and timeliness. Due to the similarity in platform architecture and user behavior between Sina Weibo and Twitter, the calculation model is also applicable to Twitter.Originality/value This paper presents a novel computational model for Weibo user influence, which combined multiple indexes such as the user’s attention rate, activity level, and message content influence, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion of context in ubiquitous computing. Personal Information Managers exploit the ubiquitous paradigm in mobile computing to integrate services and programs for business and leisure. Recognising that every situation is constituted by information and events, context will vary depending on the situation in which users find themselves. The paper aims to show the viability of tailoring contextual information to provide users with timely and relevant information. Design/methodology/approach - A survey was conducted after testing on a group of real world users. The test group used the application for approximately half a day each and performed a number of tasks Findings - The results from the survey show the viability of tailoring contextual information to provide users with timely and relevant information. Among the questions in the questionnaire the users were asked to state whether or not they would like to use this application in their daily life. Statistically significant results indicate that the users found value in using the application. Originality/value - This work is a new exploration and implementation of context by integrating three dimensions of context: social information, activity information, and geographical position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the driving factors of web based question-answer services (WBQAS) adoption. As an emerging knowledge acquisition method and service there are currently few studies addressing the antecedents of the service's acceptance, in particular concerning Chinese users. Design/methodology/approach – This paper employs the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology as its theoretical background and applies it to the field of WBQAS. A survey was conducted. Findings – Based on 169 useful questionnaires the results show that both performance expectancy and effort expectancy are significant predictors of the intention to use WBQAS. Additionally behavioural intention, together with facilitating intention, significantly influences the actual use of WBQAS. Social influence has no significant impact on the intention to use the service. Originality/value – As research on WBQAS is in its infancy this paper is among the first in the field, in particular regarding Chinese users. In addition the research applied the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model to the context of WBQAS and validated the adoption model using structural equation modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to present an epistemological perspective of how web mining can be performed by human agents, and a technical overview of a possible approach to achieve this. Design/methodology/approach - The concept of visual mining of information is based on the principle of creating a fused information space that could be navigated using visual perception, just as is possible within a natural environment. It is argued that, as the information available through human-created artefacts increases, conventional methods of information acquisition will fail to circumvent the bottle-neck created by the associated information overflow. Findings - Four types of human-created artefacts are identified: cognitive externalisations, artistic expressions, communicative accounts, and factual records. It is the communicative artefacts that are responsible for the information overflow. As a possible way forward, it is suggested that an information space could be constructed in two layers: a perceptual layer and a cognitive layer. The information in the perceptual layer could be encoded in iconic cues to create an information landscape that could be navigated visually. The cognitive layer, on the other hand, will operate on the information-engendering data structures of the communicative artefacts. Practical implications - When developed, the perceptual layer could provide a subject domain landscape that induces social familiarity with frequently traversed information environments. This should be particularly helpful for learning where frequent traversal provides opportunities for repeated rehearsal, a necessary condition for long-term retention. Originality/value - The objective of this paper is to facilitate a shift in cognitive loading associated with knowledge acquisition from post-perceptual to perceptual operations. The appealing nature of perceptual processing underpins the claim about enhancing long-term retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to explore the feasibility of using web-mining technology on learning object (LO) usage information to discover the LO relation pattern and provide valuable recommendations on related learning resources. Design/methodology/approach - This paper proposes three kinds of learning object relation patterns and gives a specific definition of each pattern based on analysing the learners' usage data stored in the learning object repository. These relation patterns can be used to make effective recommendations to learners. Findings - LO usage data indicate the potential relation patterns between LOs. By using web-mining technology on the usage data, it is possible to discover valuable relation patterns. Originality/value - The authors propose a set of LO relation patterns and indicate how they are closely related to users' learning behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to further examine clustering search results. Design/methodology/approach - The paper describes and illustrates the most powerful synergy created by the intelligent combination of metasearching and clustering on the fly through Central Search and PolyMeta. Findings - The study finds that the combination of metasearching and clustering, although two opposite functions, can produce effective synergy. Originality/value - This paper looks at the intelligent combination of metasearching and clustering in the form of Central Search and PolyMeta, giving a new step in savvy searching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Aims to focus on research and findings relating to the Z-server response times and the performance of Z39.50 for parallel searching. Design/methodology/approach - This paper begins by briefly outlining the evolution of Z39.50 and the current trends, including the work of the JISC CC-interop project. The research crux of the paper focuses on an investigation conducted with respect to testing Z39.50 server (Z-server) response times in a broadcast (parallel) searching environment. Customised software was configured to broadcast a search to all test Z-servers once an hour, for 11 weeks. The results were logged for analysis. Findings - Most Z-servers responded rapidly. "Network congestion" and local online public catalogue usage were not found to influence Z-server performance significantly. Response time issues encountered by implementers may be the result of non-response by the Z-server and how Z-client software deals with this. The influence of "quick and dirty" Z39.50 implementations is also identified as a potential cause of slow broadcast searching. Research limitations/implications - The paper indicates various areas for further research, including setting shorter time-outs and greater end-user behavioural research to ascertain user requirements in this area. The influence more complex searches, such as Boolean, have on response times and suboptimal Z39.50 implementations are also emphasised for further study. Practical implications - This paper informs the library and information science (LIS) research community and has practical implications for those establishing Z39.50 based distributed systems, as well as those in the web services community. Originality/value - The paper challenges popular LIS opinion that Z39.50 is inherently sluggish and thus unsuitable for the demands of the modern user. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Social network sites have been widely adopted by politicians in the last election campaigns. To increase the effectiveness of these campaigns the potential electorate is to be identified, as targeted ads are much more effective than non-targeted ads. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose and implement a new methodology for automatic prediction of political orientation of users on social network sites by comparison to texts from the overtly political parties’ pages.Design/methodology/approach To this end, textual information on personal users’ pages is used as a source of statistical features. The authors apply automatic text categorization algorithms to distinguish between texts of users from different political wings. However, these algorithms require a set of manually labeled texts for training, which is typically unavailable in real life situations. To overcome this limitation the authors propose to use texts available on various political parties’ pages on a social network site to train the classifier. The political leaning of these texts is determined by the political affiliation of the corresponding parties. The classifier learned on such overtly political texts is then applied on the personal user pages to predict their political orientation. To assess the validity and effectiveness of the proposed methodology two corpora were constructed: personal Facebook pages of 450 Israeli citizens, and political parties Facebook pages of the nine prominent Israeli parties.Findings The authors found that when a political tendency classifier is trained and tested on data in the same corpus, accuracy is very high. More significantly, training on manifestly political texts (political party Facebook pages) yields classifiers which can be used to classify non-political personal Facebook pages with fair accuracy.Social implications Previous studies have shown that targeted ads are more effective than non-targeted ads leading to substantial saving in the advertising budget. Therefore, the approach for automatic determining the political orientation of users on social network sites might be adopted for targeting political messages, especially during election campaigns.Originality/value This paper proposes and implements a new approach for automatic cross-corpora identification of political bias of user profiles on social network. This suggests that individuals’ political tendencies can be identified without recourse to any tagged personal data. In addition, the authors use learned classifiers to determine which self-identified centrists lean left or right and which voters are likely to switch allegiance in subsequent elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – With the popularity of e-commerce, shilling attack is becoming more rampant in online shopping websites. Shilling attackers publish mendacious ratings as well as reviews for promoting or suppressing target products. The purpose of this paper is to investigate group shilling, a new typed shilling attack, behavior in a real e-commerce platform (e.g. Amazon.cn). Design/methodology/approach – Several behavioral features are proposed for modeling the shilling group, and thus an unsupervised ranking method based on principal component analysis (PCA) is presented for identifying shilling groups from real users on Amazon.cn. Findings – As indicated by the behavior analysis, the proposed method has successfully identified a number of shilling groups on Amazon. Meanwhile, the effectiveness of the proposed features and accuracy of the proposed unsupervised method are carefully validated. Originality/value – This paper presents a set of solutions for discovering shilling groups when the ground truth labels are hard to be obtained in real environment, including candidate groups generation, behavioral features definition and unsupervised detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between individual and societal determinants of online privacy concern (OPC) and behavioral intention of internet users. The study also aims to assess the degree of reciprocity between consumers' perceived benefits of using the internet and their OPC in the context of their decision-making process in the online environment. Design/methodology/approach: The study proposes comprehensive model for analysis of antecedents and consequences of OPC. Empirical analysis is performed using the PLS–SEM approach on a representative sample of 2,060 internet users. Findings: The findings show that computer anxiety and perceived quality of regulatory framework are significant antecedents of OPC, while traditional values and inclinations toward security, family and social order; and social trust are not. Furthermore, the study reveals that perceived benefits of using the internet are the predominant factor explaining the intention to share personal information and adopt new technologies, while OPC dominates in explanation of protective behavior. Research limitations/implications: Although the authors tested an extended model, there might be other individual characteristics driving the level of OPC. This research covers just one country and further replications should be conducted to confirm findings in diverse socio-economic contexts. It is impossible to capture the real behavior with survey data, and experimental studies may be needed to verify the research model. Practical implications: Managers should work toward maximizing perceived benefits of consumers' online interaction with the company, while at the same time being transparent about the gathered data and their intended purpose. Considering the latter, companies should clearly communicate their compliance with the emerging new data protection regulation. Originality/value: New extended model is developed and empirically tested, consolidating current different streams of research into one conceptual model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze contemporary uses and gratifications (U&G) of the media, focusing on the differences between emergency and ordinary times, and between media consumers in the border region and in the home front during the Israel-Gaza War (2014).Design/methodology/approach The study used a questionnaire containing 184 items. This significant number of items was necessary due to the large number of media channels and potential uses examined. Due to the length of the questionnaire, and the inclusion of individuals who are not habitual internet users, data were collected in the field rather than through a telephone survey or online. The list of media and uses was compiled based on a review of existing literature regarding functions of media in emergencies.Findings Television and news websites are dominant suppliers of national and local information, but mobile and social channels lead in terms of social uses, discussions, requests and provision of assistance. The same channels were almost always used during emergencies and ordinary times to satisfy a specific need. The leading channels – television, Facebook, WhatsApp and SMS – were used significantly more on the frontlines than on the home front. The findings demonstrate that people use diverse media, but channels that are live, visual, social and mobile are dominant.Originality/value Very few academic studies have compared media uses during ordinary times and emergencies, and those existing focus on the uses of a specific medium. The present study examines various U&G of traditional and new media during the war, compares uses during the war with uses during ordinary times, and compares the population in the border region with the population in the home front. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The success and survival of any form of online community relies on the presence and active participation of its users. Hence, ensuring active user participation and retaining existing users is a key concern of the moderators of online communities. To address these challenges, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the epistemic, emotional, and social values that influence users’ intention to continue using an online social media brand community. Moreover, the study also investigates the differences in the influence of the investigated constructs and users’ various activity levels.Design/methodology/approach This study utilized the consumption value theory framework for testing the relationship between different measures. An empirical analysis of the consumption values of 577 users in an online social media brand community was accomplished using structural equation modeling.Findings The study findings revealed that emotional and social values exert partial influence in predicting users’ intention to continue using online social media brand communities. In particular, social enhancement and playfulness predict users’ continuation intentions. Moreover, the results show that the influence of the investigated constructs (except playfulness) is consistent across users with various activity levels in online social media brand communities.Research limitations/implications These findings pave the way for further theoretical and practical considerations of the role of consumption values in resolving challenges of user participation and retention. However, there are still some open gaps concerning the generalizability of the findings as well as other factors that could potentially influence the user intentions. Future studies should validate the findings by recruiting diverse users in terms of their age and cultural background.Practical implications The study findings are of special relevance for the service operators interested in practicing user-centric innovation. Moreover, the findings can help online social media brand community managers to kick start user-centric innovation activities in their community.Originality/value The study provides a novel perspective on the challenges of assessing users’ consumption behavior. The perceived values have been conceptualized using the constructs of social influence, problem solving, playfulness, social enhancement, and social interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of the presence and type of product symbol on online users' information search behaviour. Adopting an information processing perspective, it gathers objective and self-reported measures and investigates the relationships between them. Design/methodology/approach – An experiment was conducted with a sample of 174 individuals. The presence of a symbol recommending the product or signalling its popularity within the website was manipulated. Participants' need for cognition was measured. Findings – The presence of a product symbol positively influenced users' cognitive elaboration and perceptions of information diagnosticity. Significant differences of situational and individual characteristics, related to the type of symbol and the users' motivation to process information, were detected. Research limitations/implications – Dual information processing theories represent an adequate framework to analyse the ways in which online users perceive and process product symbols, and how they incorporate them into their diagnosticity perceptions. The presence and type of product symbols operate through different mechanisms depending on the user's need for cognition. Web designers should consider displaying these cues in online product presentations, given their potential to improve the quality of consumers' thoughts and diagnosticity perceptions. Originality/value – This is one of the first studies which examines how product symbols affect online users' information processing and evaluations. The paper offers a complete view of online information search behaviour by gathering users' objective and self-reported measures. In addition the paper stresses the importance of contextual variables related to the messages and individual's characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Virtual worlds are a typical form of social network syndication. Although the future of the virtual world phenomenon seems bright, not all efforts have succeeded. Therefore knowing how to motivate users and keep them continually engaged and visiting is an important challenge for those who create and manage virtual world websites. This paper aims to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The present study proposes a conceptual model from technological, entertainment and social perspectives to examine the determinants affecting users' intentions in their virtual worlds usage. Recognising that human behaviour varies according to different social roles, this study investigated four social roles (habitual, active, personal and lurker), and 729 valid data samples were collected from the Chinese virtual world, i-Partment. Partial least square and multi-group analysis were performed to measure the research model. Findings – The results of this study indicate that ease of use, usefulness, social presence and enjoyment are important factors of virtual worlds usage. This study also confirms that social presence and enjoyment are influenced by platform-based and sociability-based interactive quality, with sociability-based interactive quality having a much higher impact on social presence than platform-based quality. Moreover the proposed model demonstrates different intensities of explanatory power for users' usage intentions according to four social roles, and the results of this study indicate different but insightful findings for each of the four social roles. Practical implications – The virtual worlds practitioners should strive to launch creative and new recreational information or functions on a regular basis to make users' experiences enjoyable. In addition practitioners should initiate special activities or festivals to promote social interaction and devise rules to encourage users to spend more time on the virtual world websites. Moreover virtual world websites must be easy to use – with a user-friendly interface, smooth moving lines and clear and understandable information – and provide useful functions. Originality/value – This paper is one of the few studies that compares and analyses the behavioural models of different social roles, and suggests that virtual world website practitioners should make use of these findings and provide flexible services to fulfil different users' special needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to improve the egocentric search speed for important documents in neighbouring blogs. Design/methodology/approach - This paper presents a rapid egocentric search scheme that narrows down the search space to more important blogs. To determine which blogs are more valuable among a user's neighbouring blogs, a heuristic function is developed that predicts the authority scores on the basis of the local information of the blog. The proposed approach improves the speed of the egocentric search process and the quality of retrieved documents. Findings - A blog is a new medium that is receiving considerable attention. Its links enable one to acquire information about social relations between bloggers in a blog space, and these relations reflect bloggers' interests. Therefore, the ability to search documents in linked blogs is significant for bloggers. An egocentric search method is proposed to search for documents in such neighbouring blogs. However, it takes considerable time to find the most valuable documents in a user's neighbouring blogs when many blogs are linked to that user's blog. Originality/value - This study shows that the number of neighbouring blogs, which are linked to a blog with trackbacks and comments, is important for estimating the authority of a blog. In the experimental results this method performs about five times faster than the egocentric search using a breadth-first search strategy in searching for the top 5 per cent of the most important documents in the neighbouring blogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to show that the full potential of the internet has not yet been realised. One of the key reasons for this is users'' declining trust in the internet. Over the past two decades, the internet has transformed many aspects of modern life. With an estimated four million users worldwide at the end of 2006, the use of the internet continues to grow. Building trust and confidence is one of the main enablers for the future growth and use of the internet. The paper aims to review some of the reasons behind the declining trust, the changing nature of cyber-threats, and aims to look at cybersecurity in the context of developing countries and the specific problems these countries are facing when dealing with growing number of cyber-threats. Design/methodology/approach - This contribution gives an overview of some of the evolving cyber-threats and their potential impact in order to determine whether the growth of the information society is really at risk. It further considers what the different stakeholders can do to build a safer and more secure information society. The paper poses questions, outlines possible options for a way forward and based on this gives the readers a better understanding of the issues and challenges involved in building confidence and security in the use of ICTs. The paper proposes a framework with increased co-operation, collaboration, and information sharing, to connect the individual cybersecurity communities and single initiatives, in order to allow stakeholders to build together a roadmap for cybersecurity. Findings - During the discussions leading up to and during the two phases of the World Summit on the information society, country representative participants re-affirmed their commitment to deal effectively with the significant and growing problems posed by spam and other cyber-threats. As no single country or entity can alone create trust, confidence and security in the use of ICTs, it is clear that increased international action is needed to address the issues involved. Practical implications - This paper tries to provide readers with a simple overview of the state of cybersecurity, and with a framework for further considering how new technologies and the growing use of the internet will impact upon stakeholders'' trust in the use of ICTs. Originality/value - Along with increasing dependency on ICTs, new threats to network and information security have emerged. These include growing misuse of electronic networks for criminal purposes or for objectives that can furthermore adversely affect the integrity of critical infrastructures within states. This paper puts forward some concrete suggestions on how countries could look at the issues related to cybersecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Metasearch engines (MSEs) which have been designed to solve problems of internet users in finding relevant resources are not seemingly as recognized as the other web search tools such as search engines (SEs) and directories. As a result, this paper aims to compare and evaluate some of them in terms of search features included in their interface so that users can be familiar with these search tools. Design/methodology/approach - This research compares and evaluates 20 general MSEs in English, which are free of charge, based on a researcher-made checklist. Finally, those MSEs which have better search features have been introduced. Findings - According to results obtained, it is self-evident that most MSEs offer an excellent alternative for users. Research limitations/implications - MSEs which have great features and high facilities are not necessarily user-friendly. So, usability studies or user-oriented ones on MSEs seem to be required. Practical implications - Hopefully, these findings help users choose and make use of an MSE, MSE developers design more efficient and effective ones and information professionals identify and retrieve high relevant documents, meeting their information needs. Originality/value - This paper provides clear and relatively comprehensive descriptive evidence for evaluating search facilities and potentials of MSEs which are commonly used by internet users today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This article aims to understand the opportunities as well as the challenges posed by the methods for internationalized access to domain names. Design/methodology/approach - The paper first provides background information on how domain names are resolved in the domain name system (DNS). It then reviews the various methods for internationalized access to domain names with a focus on their technical implementation and potential problems. Finally, it discusses several important language and policy issues surrounding the methods. Findings - The methods proposed for internationalized access to domain names can be classified into two groups: ASCII-compatible encoding; and multilingual keywords. ASCII-compatible encoding methods, such as the internationalized domain name (IDN) standards specified by the internet engineering task force, seem technically sound since they do not affect existing DNS operations, but they have some structural limitations. Multilingual keyword methods are rather simple and intuitive to use but they are not compatible with one another and so may return different results from the same multilingual keyword query. Also, both ASCII-compatible encoding and multilingual keyword methods can raise some important issues associated with languages and policies, such as linguistic problems, disputes over IDNs, and multilingual homographs. Originality/value - The issues discussed in this paper need to be addressed for broad and seamless implementation of the methods for internationalized access to domain names across various languages. The review of the methods and associated issues can prove helpful to those from internet users and domain name registrants to domain name registries and registrars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose-Google Scholar Citations (GSC) provides an institutional affiliation link which groups together authors who belong to the same institution. The purpose of this paper is to ascertain whether this feature is able to identify and normalize all the institutions entered by the authors, and whether it is able to assign all researchers to their own institution correctly. Design/methodology/approach-Systematic queries to GSC's internal search box were performed under two different forms (institution name and institutional e-mail web domain) in September 2015. The whole Spanish academic system (82 institutions) was used as a test. Additionally, specific searches to companies (Google) and world-class universities were performed to identify and classify potential errors in the functioning of the feature. Findings-Although the affiliation tool works well for most institutions, it is unable to detect all existing institutions in the database, and it is not always able to create a unique standardized entry for each institution. Additionally, it also fails to group all the authors who belong to the same institution. A wide variety of errors have been identified and classified. Research limitations/implications-Even though the analyzed sample is good enough to empirically answer the research questions initially proposed, a more comprehensive study should be performed to calibrate the real volume of the errors. Practical implications-The discovered affiliation link errors prevent institutions from being able to access the profiles of all their respective authors using the institutions lists offered by GSC. Additionally, it introduces a shortcoming in the navigation features of Google Scholar which may impair web user experience. Social implications-Some institutions (mainly universities) are under-represented in the affiliation feature provided by GSC. This fact might jeopardize the visibility of institutions as well as the use of this feature in bibliometric or webometric analyses. Originality/value-This work proves inconsistencies in the affiliation feature provided by GSC. A whole national university system is systematically analyzed and several queries have been used to reveal errors in its functioning. The completeness of the errors identified and the empirical data examined are the most exhaustive to date regarding this topic. Finally, some recommendations about how to correctly fill in the affiliation data (both for authors and institutions) and how to improve this feature are provided as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to investigate the attitudes and influential factors of users' knowledge and use of the tools designated for controlling and enhancing online privacy, which are referred to as online privacy literacy (OPL). Particularly, inspired by the protection motivation theory, a motivational factor is defined as comprising several variables which reflect users' motivation to protect their online privacy. Design/methodology/approach -- To this end, a user study was conducted based on the quantitative method with the participation of 169 students from the Israeli academia who were administered closed-ended questionnaires. Findings -- Generally low to moderate levels of OPL were obtained. Interestingly, the multivariate linear regression analysis showed that motivational factors, such as users' concern for personal information protection on the internet and users' privacy self-efficacy and sense of anonymity when visiting a website, were among the strongest predictive factors of users' OPL level. Social implications -- This research has social implications that might contribute to an increase in the OPL among internet users. Originality/value -- The direct influence of the examined factors on users' OPL was not previously discussed in the literature. As a result of the study, a comprehensive model of user online privacy behavior was constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- Social network sites (SNSs) are an important part of consumers' everyday lives, and have been recognized as a useful marketing channel. However, little is known about how brands should communicate in order to be more effective and maximize the diffusion of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) in these platforms. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of directional posts on consumers depending on previous diffusion of the post and consumers' connectivity. Design/methodology/approach -- A between-subjects experimental design was used. The sample consisted of 369 individuals. Findings -- The results show that directional posts only enhance the intention to spread eWOM and the attitude toward the product when the brand post was highly diffused. This effect is stronger among highly connected consumers (hubs) than among less well-connected individuals. Originality/value -- To the best of the authors knowledge, this is one of the first studies to analyze the persuasiveness of marketers' explicit encouragements to "like" brand posts, a tactic known as directional posts. The study investigates whether and how consumer responses to directional posts are influenced by responses from others and by the number of connections that consumers have within the SNSs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper, building on the media richness theory (MRT), is to propose that while communicating product information via streaming video should enhance outcome measures, such an enhancement will be evident mainly for users with equivocal, latent goals (i.e. recreational browsing) rather than for those with less equivocal, concrete goals (i.e. the search of a specific product).Design/methodology/approach The experiment involved 337 potential online consumers in Canada, and had full factorial design with four conditions (two methods to communicate product information: textual vs streaming video, and two goals: product searching vs recreational browsing). Analysis of covariance was used to test the hypotheses.Findings The results lent support to the hypotheses. The perceived information quality, trusting competence, and arousal for participants with recreational browsing goals were significantly affected when product information where communicated using streaming video. For participants with concrete goals (product searchers), the traditional textual method was as effective as the streaming video method.Practical implications The findings entice practitioners to use rich media such as the streaming video method to communicate online information predominantly for users with experiential browsing goals, and to use lean media for users with less equivocal, concrete goals.Originality/value The results contribute to the sparse literature that underscores the key role of user goal in shaping the effectiveness of online information. The results provide empirical support to the prediction of MRT that the use of rich media to communicate information is advantageous for users with latent, equivocal goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Focusing on social network services (SNS), the purpose of this paper is to propose a research model to investigate individuals’ SNS usage facilitators and inhibitors from the perspective of individuals’ media system dependency (MSD) and privacy concerns.Design/methodology/approach The research model will be tested with data collected from online users of Facebook. The survey yielded a total of 403 responses for the data analysis which was conducted by measurement and structural models.Findings The findings indicate that SNSs members strive for understanding, orientation, and play dependencies which facilitate their satisfaction and social presence, and subsequently fosters their continuance intention toward the SNS. In addition, the members’ privacy concerns decrease satisfaction and social presence online.Originality/value First, this study has contributed to the authors’ understanding of an individual’s SNS facilitators and inhibitors from the theoretical perspective (i.e. MSD theory and privacy concerns). Second, satisfaction is a strong antecedent of continuance intention and would dilute the effect of social presence on an individual’s SNS continuance intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the continued use behavior (CU) of link sharing tools based on uses and gratifications theory, the theory of planned behavior and expectation confirmation theory. It then builds a conceptual model that is empirically tested.Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 343 students (undergraduates, masters, PhD students, and MBAs) from three Chinese universities via a two-phrase survey. The tools SPSS 18.0 and AMOS 18.0 were used to analyse the reliability, validity, model fits and SEM, respectively.Findings The results indicate that an individual’s CU of link sharing tools was determined by his or her continued use intention directly and subjective norm indirectly. Users’ satisfaction on link sharing tools was the main factor affecting the continuance intention. Individuals’ motivation needs such as cognitive needs, personal integrative needs, and social integrative needs were found to be the significant predictors of his or her satisfaction. Besides, people with high privacy concern tended to have less satisfaction with link sharing tools.Originality/value This study explores users’ CU of link sharing tools in social media for the first time. The theoretical model developed shows the predictors behind people’s CU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Twitter as a social tool allows people to express their views, emotions or communicate information within brevity of 140 character limit. It has provided an opportunity to researchers to tab users’ expressions on social or political issues, be it natural calamity, elections and alike. The purpose of this paper is to assess how people explored Twitter to express their views regarding state assembly elections of Jammu and Kashmir (India).Design/methodology/approach The authors performed content analysis of 4,537 tweets that were posted by 1,420 different Twitter users over a period of 78 days (October 30, 2014 through January 15, 2015).Findings Users were found to be active on the days of polling while post-polling period witnessed a huge influx in particular on the day of voting and declaration of results. Nearly 94 percent users have posted around 50 percent of tweets and there were only 81 handles which posted remaining 50 percent tweets. In additions to people, news agencies, anonymous groups and social/political groups have expressed their views on this event. Nearly one-fourth tweets were retweeted and one-fourth tweets were marked favorite. Users have mostly providing news updates or personnel commentaries about the election process.Originality/value The study is first of its kind using Twitter to represent the sentiments of people during floods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Mobile social network games (mSNGs) are gaining increasing popularity recently. Many of the games are marketed using the brand pages on social network services including Facebook. The purpose of this paper is to identify the characteristics of the posts on the brand pages that affect the reaction of users. Design/methodology/approach – Four independent variables were tested for their influence on user reaction: informativeness, structure, call for action, and the type of reward. In total, 439 posts on the brand pages of two mobile game companies on Facebook were manually collected. The hypotheses were tested using multiple regression analysis. Findings – The characteristics of the brand pages appeared to have significant impact on the users’ reaction. Overall, being informative, calling for action, and providing content-related (game-related) rewards have significant and positive impact on the reaction of users. Using only texts or embedding videos or hyperlinks in the posts has either negative or no significant impact on the reaction of users. Originality/value – The literature review shows that not many empirical studies have been conducted so far about the brand pages of mSNGs. Therefore, this study contributes to the understanding of users’ reaction on the brand pages for mSNGs, and how companies should manage their communication effort on the pages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Although novel posting is a universal phenomenon in virtual communities (VCs), few studies have addressed the benefits of novel posting for group members. The purpose of this paper is to identify the social and psychological outcomes of novel posting, particularly whether and how sense of belonging can be produced by it. Sense of belonging implies an individual’s integration or assimilation into virtual groups. Design/methodology/approach – To assess the theoretical model, a survey was administered in an internet discussion community (Baidu Post Bar in China), and structural equation modeling was then used to test the model. Findings – Novel posting can produce social and psychological outcomes, such as social interaction ties, group-based self-esteem and sense of belonging. Novel posting is an individualized behavior, which some studies consider to conflict with sense of belonging; however, via the mediating effects of social interaction ties and group-based self-esteem, sense of belonging can also arise based on novel posting. Practical implications – VC operators should focus on differentiating between irrational posts and novel posts and encourage the latter. Additionally, to satisfy members’ needs, VC operators should strengthen the degree of social interaction ties and members’ self-esteem by providing attractive topics and virtual rankings. Originality/value – This study contributes to a theoretical understanding of the social and psychological outcomes of novel posting and, more importantly, whether and how sense of belonging arises on the basis of individualized behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to improve and facilitate the work of developers and usability evaluators by providing an adaptable and effective support. A well-defined set of criteria and a range of evaluation values for each criterion as well as a complete websites classification, will guide evaluators. A usability percentage and a list of prioritized criteria, adapted to the type of website by a new usability metric, will help developers to improve the website. This improvement will increase the degree of web user satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – Having established and validated a new usability evaluation framework, several usability tools have been analyzed. None of them totally fulfills the requirements of the evaluation framework. As a result of being unable to customize any of them, a new one has been developed. A study of 42 enterprise websites in an economically depressed region of Europe was performed using the new tool. This study involved 42 evaluators and 118 web users. Users have evaluated the websites before and after the redesign. A end-user computing satisfaction model-based questionary was used to collect data about end-user satisfaction. The results validate the proposal. Findings – The study confirms that the proposed tool provides valuable information during the process of web development, evaluation and redesign. In adittion, it reveals that improving websites usability by ensuring criteria compliance has a positive effect on web users satisfaction. Originality/value – Unlike previous purposes, the proposed tool allows to evaluate any type of website with a well-defined set of evaluation criteria and specific criteria values. As outcomes, the tool provides the website usability degree and a list of criteria ordered by priority repair. These results are adapted to the specific type of website. This makes easier and more effective the redesign of the evaluated website. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Drawing upon the knowledge sharing model, the purpose of this paper is to identify personal and environmental antecedents to information sharing on social networking sites (SNSs) and examines the interaction effects between the two factors. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected via online survey with college students. Hierarchical multiple regressions were performed to test hypotheses and examine research questions. Findings – With regard to environmental factors, the more users perceive their audience to be a collection of weak ties, the more likely they are to share information on SNSs, independent of the size of their networks. Personal factors such as information self-efficacy, positive social outcome expectations, and sharing enjoyment feelings were found to be significant predictors of sharing activities. In addition, a significant interaction effect was found such that the effects of social outcome expectations on sharing activities on SNSs are manifested to a greater extent when users perceive their audience as weak ties rather than strong ties. Originality/value – This study extends the knowledge sharing model literature by applying it to the SNS context and advances SNS research by taking into consideration both environmental factors and personal factors and their interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to report on a user-centred analysis of video digital libraries and to present users' criteria based on concepts emerging directly from the responses of study participants. As a time-based and multi-channeled format, video warrants considerations for information delivery through interactive tools such as digital libraries. Design/methodology/approach -- A survey method was used to collect open-ended responses from participants. Content analysis was performed on the responses, and categories then emerged to form the coding scheme where simple and weighted frequencies were calculated to obtain a ranked set of users' criteria. Cohen's κ was 0.87, indicative of high-level of inter-coder reliability. In the end, 81 participants contributed a total of 385 open-ended responses, which were all then analysed and coded. Findings -- The emergent coding method and continuous refinements to the coding scheme ultimately produced 28 criteria (subcategories) under four primary categories. Criteria corresponding to "retrieval functionality" of video digital libraries emerged as the highest, or most frequently referenced, primary category, while the "user interface", "collection qualities", and "user support" followed, respectively. Research limitations/implications -- The primary research contribution is a baseline for video digital libraries that can be applicable throughout design and evaluation. Future studies can utilise findings presented here as guidance for the initial design stages and/or for assessing systems via targeted evaluations. Originality/value -- While users' criteria of digital libraries have been analysed from non-visual contexts, they have not been directly assessed as they pertain to users' experiences and perceptions with video, which is needed as the nature and structure of video can influence users and use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to present findings from a large-scale study which examined the uses and gratifications of communities of practice of the Israeli Ministry of Social Services. Design/methodology/approach -- A twofold research methodology was applied: content analysis of 7,248 posts, as well as 71 semi-structured interviews with community members. Findings -- Cognitive uses were perceived by community members as the key uses and gratifications from the communities of practice. The implications of these uses and gratifications, such as the de-isolation of isolated workers and personal empowerment, are studied. Originality/value -- Contrary to much recent literature, the study presents the communities not mainly as platforms for social relations or emotional support, but rather as exchange platforms where information is transmitted between providers and consumers to the benefit of all community members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ways in which effectiveness of answers in Yahoo! Answers, one of the largest community question answering sites (CQAs), is related to question types and answerer reputation. Effective answers are defined as those that are detailed, readable, superior in quality and contributed promptly. Five question types that were studied include factoid, list, definition, complex interactive and opinion. Answerer reputation refers to the past track record of answerers in the community. Design/methodology/approach - The data set comprises 1,459 answers posted in Yahoo! Answers in response to 464 questions that were distributed across the five question types. The analysis was done using factorial analysis of variance. Findings - The results indicate that factoid, definition and opinion questions are comparable in attracting high quality as well as readable answers. Although reputed answerers generally fared better in offering detailed and high-quality answers, novices were found to submit more readable responses. Moreover, novices were more prompt in answering factoid, list and definition questions. Originality/value - By analysing variations in answer effectiveness with a twin focus on question types and answerer reputation, this study explores a strand of CQA research that has hitherto received limited attention. The findings offer insights to users and designers of CQAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to extend a traditional communication theory, spiral of silence, to explore the effects of user anonymity and member familiarity on opinion expression behaviour in a virtual environment. Design/methodology/approach -- A laboratory experiment method was used to manipulate user anonymity, member familiarity, and opinion congruity to measure the willingness to express opinions concerning controversial topics. Findings -- A total of 147 participants were recruited in the experiment. The results revealed that anonymous users in virtual communities and users in groups comprising familiar members are more willing to express inconsistent opinions than non-anonymous users and users in groups containing unfamiliar members, respectively. In addition, anonymous and non-anonymous users as well as users in groups comprising familiar members and those in groups containing unfamiliar members are equally willing to express consistent opinions. Originality/value -- This is the first study to verify the effect of user anonymity and member familiarity on the willingness to express opinions in online social communities. The findings have crucial implications regarding how governments and businesses can stimulate creativity and feedback through virtual communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to analyse the determinants of social networking site loyalty, paying special attention to the roles of user attitude, perceived risk and satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – The impact of uses and gratifications of social networking sites, attitude, perceived risks and satisfaction on social networking site loyalty is tested through structural equation modelling techniques. The sample consisted of 811 Spanish social networking site users collected through a personal survey. Risk is measured as a formative construct. Findings – Data analysis shows that attitude is a key variable in increasing satisfaction and loyalty towards social networking sites. Sociability and entertainment gratifications and perceived risks (psychological, time loss and social) are the main drivers of user attitude towards social networking sites. Practical implications – This research enables managers to know what aspects to highlight in their communication strategies to increase social networking site use and positive word-of-mouth. The research findings show managers that social networking site content should provide fun and foster user interactions in order to improve user attitude. Practical recommendations to increase social networking site satisfaction and loyalty and guidelines to reduce perceived risk dimensions are also provided. Originality/value – Despite the importance of social networking sites for companies, only limited work has been done to identify motivators and barriers of social networking site loyalty. This work aims to combine the influence of gratifications provided by social networking sites, perceived risks, attitude and satisfaction in order to construct an improved model for social networking site loyalty formation. Furthermore risk is measured as a formative construct because there is no reason to expect that risk dimensions in social networking site use are correlated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The use of search engines has become increasingly common. While Google has an overwhelming majority of the market share, new and innovative search techniques are being developed. An example of these is the clustering interface used by a number of search engines, whereby results are grouped and visualised according to categories. The purpose of this paper is to examine user perceptions and experience of using clustering. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 12 Palmerston North City Library (New Zealand) staff members and patrons were recruited and the data were gathered through both observations of a search using a clustering search engine (Carrot2Clustering) and via semi-structured interviews. The data were analysed according to four themes: features, look and feel, results and clusters. Findings – The findings from this study revealed that the use of clusters can assist users in the search process in several ways. Evidence was also found to support previous research indicating the importance of labelling the clusters. Originality/value – This exploratory research provides some insights into users' perceived cognitive load in using a clustering search engine as compared to using a list-based search engine. The authors explored how searchers compare their overall experience of using clustering search engines to using traditional list-based engines and the extent to which the clustering presentation influences the progression of a search. The authors also examined the extent to which searchers make use of the feedback a clustering search engine provides to refine, rephrase or redefine their initial search. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyse whether internet experience, process quality, outcome quality, customer satisfaction, and post-use expectations affect the consistent use of health information online by Chinese internet users and how these factors are related to one another. Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected from 219 Chinese university students who are currently using, or have used, the health information services available on the internet. Tertiary students were selected because they are active internet users who frequently use the internet to search for information. Findings - Internet experience affects process quality, but it has no direct relation to outcome quality or customer satisfaction. Process quality determines customer satisfaction toward health information available on the internet and influences the outcome quality; however, the outcome quality is not related to customer satisfaction. The decision to reuse health information found on the internet is influenced by both customer satisfaction and post-use expectations. The customers' post-use expectations are primarily influenced by customer satisfaction. Practical implications - For a successful internet business, internet marketers should recognise that service quality includes both process quality and outcome quality and plan new campaigns that take this factor into consideration. Tracking post-use expectations can help predict, with reasonable accuracy, the relationship between customer satisfaction and retention of health information found on the internet. Originality/value - This study provides a better understanding about the users of health information found on the internet in China by taking into account the above-mentioned factors: internet experience, post-use expectation, process quality, and outcome quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to report on a web usability study and to identify and prioritise key web interface usability factors (WIUFs) for web sites of 36 student-related online services categorised into three groups: personal services, purchase services and study-related web sites. Design/methodology/approach - In this study, involving 400 student internet users (SIUs), 12,310 data points were collected and analysed using a multiple linear regression test. Seven WIUFs were tested: use of colour and font (UCF), use of graphics and multimedia (UGM), clarity of goals in web site (CGW), trustworthiness of web site (TOW), interactivity of web site (IOW), ease of web navigation (EWN), and download speed of web site (DSOW). Findings - The study results reveal that every online service category has a different set of crucial WIUFs. SIUs' web usability preferences were compared with those of general internet users. Research limitations/implications - The participants were all Malaysians; therefore, generalising the findings to all SIUs will require a confirmatory study with SIUs from other parts of the world. Practical implications - Web developers can use the results to design usable web sites for specific online service categories. Originality/value - The research offers a simpler alternative to measure web usability and to determine which WIUFs are crucial for a specific online service category with consideration of the users' role. This study overcomes some weaknesses of previous studies, i.e. small sample size, no consideration of product-task relationship, no specific customer group and cumbersome procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of the research was to create internet search instructions, to test their effectiveness and to track the search behavior of the first year MLS students Design/methodology/approach - The students received two exercises with similar search tasks. No specific search guidelines were delivered to the students prior to the first exercise. Prior to the second exercise students received a lecture based on the internet search instructions developed by the authors. The results of the two searches were analyzed and compared. Findings - As a result of the lecture students significantly improved the search results. There were a certain number of problematic search behavior patterns and obstacles uncovered, which proved to have a critical impact on the search results, such as: difficulties in acquiring new or alternative vocabulary during the search process, perception of the task as the ultimate source of keywords, and perception of commercial sources as unavailable. Research limitations/implications - In order to understand the effect of the internet search instructions, the experiment has to be repeated with other groups of users. If the results consistently show that search behavior improves, the authors recommend systematic training of internet users. Originality/value - The paper might be particularly interesting for information specialists and search instructors mostly because it reveals connection between the way the problem was stated and initial search strategy - a connection that to our knowledge has not been deeply explored yet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore why A-list bloggers are continuously popular and what benefits they may obtain from becoming A-list bloggers. Design/methodology/approach – This work compared the varying popularity ranking list at two stages of Wretch, the biggest blog platform in Taiwan, and selected 44 continuously popular A-list bloggers as research subjects. The research used online ethnographic methods, social network analysis, and text analysis to analyse collected data, including personal blog homepages, profile pages, blogrolls, blog posts, and audience responses to 44 continuously popular A-list bloggers. Findings – The results reveal that, on average, A-list bloggers publish several articles weekly. Each article draws many responses and quotations; however only a few audience members continuously respond to these articles. The social network analysis and the online ethnographic analysis results indicate that a large audience regularly visits A-list blogs, and their quotations and diffusion of information promote A-list bloggers' reputations and build social capital, which consequently provides opportunities to convert popularity into a profit source. Finally the text analysis results show that A-list bloggers often share positive life experiences in their blogs and receive positive feedback from their audience, which may increase their psychological well-being and life satisfaction, and motivate them to continue writing. The positive emotions of A-list bloggers may affect their audience and create emotional resonance with them. Originality/value – This is the first study to explore the success of continuously popular A-list bloggers to increase the understanding of the blogging phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - A lack of differentiation in the function and appearance of web portals has led to fierce competition; attracting users' attention is no doubt the most important factor for portal success. This study aims to combine rational assessment factors and non-rational assessment factors to examine their impact on the intended use of portals. Design/methodology/approach - The research participants were individuals who have experience using web portals. A total of 215 valid questionnaires were collected. Structural equation modelling was used to test the research hypothesis. Findings - This study is based on the technology acceptance model (TAM), a significant model in MIS research. The results show that all assessment factors have an impact on the intended use of web portals. Research limitations/implications - TAM emphasised perceived usefulness as the key determinant of user acceptance of technology. This study finds, however, that in the portal context, non-rational assessment factors such as perceived playfulness and habit have more significant effects on users' intention than perceived usefulness. Practical implications - The paper concludes that non-rational assessment factors are important boundary conditions to the validity of the technology acceptance model. To attract users, web site designers should be more aware of aesthetics and the hedonic nature of web users. Originality/value - This study has contributed to the original TAM by incorporating non-rational assessment factors. It also validates this empirical model. The results of this study can help practitioners create a more successful business model and help researchers better understand user behaviour on the internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which looks into the robustness and applicability of web co-link analysis for business intelligence of two different Chinese industries such as electronics and chemical. The study collects web co-link data from various search engines and uses multidimensional scaling (MDS) in mapping the co-link data. It discovers that webpages of the Chinese industries are very consumer-oriented. It also suggests that the co-link analysis method can be also applied to the non-business environment.

The article presents a study which explores the privacy problem associated with internet search engine use and proposes h(k)-private information retrieval (h(k)-PIR) protocols to address the said problem. It discusses the practical compromise between privacy and computational efficiency in relation to (h(k)-PIR) when querying web databases and search engines. It shows that the proposed protocols enable protection for the privacy of users' queries in any databases but the quality of search results decrease with the increase of privacy protection. It also examines the shortcomings of the conventional PIR protocols such as computational complexity and practical deployment, for which the enhanced (h(k)-PIR) protocols will address.

The article explores the proposed recommender system from expert groups that are formed to recommend domain-specific documents for general users. The groups evaluate web documents to propose the system for general users and their authority and make-up are adjusted through user feedback. It is found that the proposed system is efficient if there is a major support from experts and general users and it is especially effective if there is a limited amount of evaluation data from the users. The expert groups are also considered effective for recommender systems.

The article offers information on the effective use of technology in personal knowledge management (PKM) practices. It presents a theoretical framework integrating PKM skills, skills-tools fit, user context and technology tools. It mentions that the success of technology use resides if the usage really improves effectiveness and not just in whether individuals use technology. It offers suggestions on the need to assess and consider the technology tools in the context of how they will be adjusted with particular PKM skills.