Understanding information seeking behavior through network traffic analysis

Abstract

Many of today's information workers use the Internet as a valuable first-choice source for new knowledge. As such, Internet based information seeking is a key part of how information workers find information. This study develops techniques to quantify the information seeking patterns of information workers by looking at Web Site diversity, page rank, and general statistics of Web Site viewership. Future research by our group will build on these measurement techniques and explore the relationship between information worker productivity and Internet information seeking behavior.