research-article

Query for Architecture, Click through Military: Comparing the Roles of Search and Navigation on Wikipedia

Authors:

Dimitar Dimitrov,

Florian Lemmerich,

Markus StrohmaierAuthors Info & Claims

WebSci '18: Proceedings of the 10th ACM Conference on Web Science

Pages 371 - 380

https://doi.org/10.1145/3201064.3201092

Published: 15 May 2018 Publication History

Abstract

As one of the richest sources of encyclopedic information on the Web, Wikipedia generates an enormous amount of traffic. In this paper, we study large-scale article access data of the English Wikipedia in order to compare articles with respect to the two main paradigms of information seeking, i.e., search by formulating a query, and navigation by following hyperlinks. To this end, we propose and employ two main metrics, namely (i) searchshare -- the relative amount of views an article received by search --, and (ii) resistance -- the ability of an article to relay traffic to other Wikipedia articles -- to characterize articles. We demonstrate how articles in distinct topical categories differ substantially in terms of these properties. For example, architecture-related articles are often accessed through search and are simultaneously a "dead end'' for traffic, whereas historical articles about military events are mainly navigated. We further link traffic differences to varying network, content, and editing activity features. Lastly, we measure the impact of the article properties by modeling access behavior on articles with a gradient boosting approach. The results of this paper constitute a step towards understanding human information seeking behavior on the Web.

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Cited By

Scarone BBaeza-Yates RBernhardson E(2023)Understanding Search Behavior Bias in WikipediaAdvances in Bias and Fairness in Information Retrieval10.1007/978-3-031-37249-0_11(134-146)Online publication date: 15-Jul-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37249-0_11
Piccardi TGerlach MWest R(2022)Going Down the Rabbit Hole: Characterizing the Long Tail of Wikipedia Reading SessionsCompanion Proceedings of the Web Conference 202210.1145/3487553.3524930(1324-1330)Online publication date: 25-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3487553.3524930
Saddal MRashid UKhattak AFarooq G(2022)ISRE-Framework: nonlinear and multimodal exploration of image search result spacesMultimedia Tools and Applications10.1007/s11042-022-12561-481:19(27275-27308)Online publication date: 25-Mar-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-022-12561-4
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Query for Architecture, Click through Military: Comparing the Roles of Search and Navigation on Wikipedia
1. Information systems
  1. World Wide Web
    1. Web mining
      1. Traffic analysis
      2. Web log analysis

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cover image ACM Conferences

WebSci '18: Proceedings of the 10th ACM Conference on Web Science

May 2018

399 pages

ISBN:9781450355636

DOI:10.1145/3201064

General Chairs:
Hans Akkermans
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
,
Kathy Fontaine
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA
,
Ivar Vermeulen
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
,
Program Chairs:
Geert-Jan Houben
TU Delft, The Netherlands
,
Matthew S. Weber
Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA

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Published: 15 May 2018

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WebSci '18: 10th ACM Conference on Web Science

May 27 - 30, 2018

Amsterdam, Netherlands

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WebSci '18 Paper Acceptance Rate 30 of 113 submissions, 27%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 245 of 933 submissions, 26%

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Cited By

Scarone BBaeza-Yates RBernhardson E(2023)Understanding Search Behavior Bias in WikipediaAdvances in Bias and Fairness in Information Retrieval10.1007/978-3-031-37249-0_11(134-146)Online publication date: 15-Jul-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37249-0_11
Piccardi TGerlach MWest R(2022)Going Down the Rabbit Hole: Characterizing the Long Tail of Wikipedia Reading SessionsCompanion Proceedings of the Web Conference 202210.1145/3487553.3524930(1324-1330)Online publication date: 25-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3487553.3524930
Saddal MRashid UKhattak AFarooq G(2022)ISRE-Framework: nonlinear and multimodal exploration of image search result spacesMultimedia Tools and Applications10.1007/s11042-022-12561-481:19(27275-27308)Online publication date: 25-Mar-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-022-12561-4
Yan XZhang JElahi HJiang MGao H(2021)A Personalized Search Query Generating Method for Safety-Enhanced Vehicle-to-People NetworksIEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology10.1109/TVT.2021.307562670:6(5296-5307)Online publication date: Jun-2021
https://doi.org/10.1109/TVT.2021.3075626
Kessler SMede NSchäfer M(2020)Eyeing CRISPR on Wikipedia: Using Eye Tracking to Assess What Lay Audiences Look for to Learn about CRISPR and Genetic EngineeringEnvironmental Communication10.1080/17524032.2020.1723668(1-18)Online publication date: 11-Mar-2020
https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2020.1723668
Koopmann TDallmann AHettinger LNiebler THotho AAtzenbeck CRubart JMillard D(2019)On the right track! Analysing and Predicting Navigation Success in WikipediaProceedings of the 30th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media10.1145/3342220.3343650(143-152)Online publication date: 12-Sep-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3342220.3343650

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