QUICK ANALYSIS OF BROWSING VS SEARCHING

"Browsing" and "Searching" are two common approaches people use when interacting with information, particularly on the internet. Let's quickly analyze the key differences between these two methods:

Browsing:

1. Exploratory Nature: Browsing involves navigating through a collection of items (websites, products, articles, etc.) in a more casual and exploratory manner. Users often move from one item to another based on curiosity or interest.
2. Visual and Spatial: Browsing tends to rely on visual cues, such as thumbnails, images, and layout. Users might rely on menus, categories, and recommendations to move from one item to another.
3. Serpentine Path: The path of browsing can be less linear, with users frequently jumping between different topics or items without a specific goal in mind.
4. Time-Consuming: Browsing can be time-consuming if users don't have a clear idea of what they're looking for, as they might get lost in the abundance of options.
5. Serendipity: Browsing can lead to serendipitous discoveries as users stumble upon interesting items they didn't initially intend to find.
6. Less Precise: Browsing might not always yield the most precise results, especially if users are searching for specific information.

Searching:

1. Goal-Oriented: Searching involves inputting specific keywords or phrases into a search engine or tool with the intention of finding precise and relevant results.
2. Textual: Searching often relies on text-based queries, and the results are ranked based on their relevance to the input query.
3. Linear Path: Searching tends to follow a more linear path, with users usually starting from a search query, scanning the results, and clicking on the most relevant links.
4. Efficiency: Searching can be more efficient when users know exactly what they're looking for, as it quickly provides targeted results.
5. Precision: Searching is generally more precise in finding specific information, making it ideal for tasks where accuracy is crucial.
6. Limited Serendipity: While users might come across unexpected information while searching, the level of serendipity is generally lower compared to browsing.

In summary, browsing is more exploratory and visually-driven, allowing users to discover new information in a less structured manner. On the other hand, searching is goal-oriented, text-based, and efficient for finding specific information quickly. The choice between browsing and searching depends on the user's intention, the nature of the task, and the familiarity with the content or topic.

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Searching and browsing are different. Most people know this, even though we sometimes use the words interchangeably. But as a quick reminder, browsing is more casual, often done to scratch a curiosity itch, whereas searching is more in-depth, done to better understand a topic or to find something. Searching can also be referred to as Analytical search or research. Around 3.2 billion people have access to the internet, so that means more people are searching and browsing every day than ever before, which means it’s even more important to have designs that support browsing and searching.

An Example

Let’s look at an example of how searching and browsing for the same topic can provide different information.

Let’s use Google as an example since it is the most used search engine in the world. If a person is just curious about something and wants to satisfy an information itch about college athletes and if they should be paid or not, they could go to Google, type in should college athletes be paid and they will get ~33,800,000 results. The first few results provide a url, sometimes a date, and a small excerpt with information on the pros and cons of paying college athletes, a couple of news articles, and other results with some information, but most likely nothing in-depth. It would provide enough information for a person to decide whether to click on the link and either scan or read the document to find the information they are looking for. A person is also most likely only going to look at the first few results to find the information they are looking for when browsing. It would most likely satisfy a person’s curiosity, and they would be done.

However, if a person wants to conduct research and search for more in-depth information, they could go to Google Scholar instead, type the same query (should college athletes be paid), and get ~133,000 results instead of the around 26 million that Google showed. They will see more details about each result such as file type, who wrote it and where it came from, and a small excerpt from the result. Or if they wanted to search in both Google and Google Scholar, they may use Boolean operators such as quotation marks (reducing the results to ~601,000 on Google and only ~108 on Google Scholar) to reduce the number of results to attempt to find results with more value or closer to what the person is attempting to find. The structure of the search results in Google and Google Scholar are different because the information behaviors for the two search engines are different.

Conclusion

The importance of designing good browsing and searching experiences is clear. We will always need to find information in a variety of ways. People will continue to both browse and search, and depending on what a website is about, one or both should be supported. Just as we design and develop websites, their navigation, their designs, and their content, we must also design them for browsing and searching in mind. As our need for information continues to grow, so will our need for better ways to find information also grow.

THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW: How-many-people-use-google? Approximately 99,000 search queries are processed by Google every second, resulting in about 8.5 billion searches daily and roughly 2 trillion globally.

THINGS YOU MAY WANT TO SAVE: Your research projects placed in special binder?

ZENTRAVELER SAYS: Browse & Search. What else would a senor citizen do. Not keen on rock climbing and too old to be a Formula One Driver.

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