Models of human navigation in information networks based on decentralized search

D Helic, M Strohmaier, M Granitzer… - Proceedings of the 24th …, 2013 - dl.acm.org
Proceedings of the 24th ACM conference on hypertext and social media, 2013dl.acm.org
Models of human navigation play an important role for understanding and facilitating user
behavior in hypertext systems. In this paper, we conduct a series of principled experiments
with decentralized search-an established model of human navigation in social networks-and
study its applicability to information networks. We apply several variations of decentralized
search to model human navigation in information networks and we evaluate the outcome in
a series of experiments. In these experiments, we study the validity of decentralized search …
Models of human navigation play an important role for understanding and facilitating user behavior in hypertext systems. In this paper, we conduct a series of principled experiments with decentralized search - an established model of human navigation in social networks - and study its applicability to information networks. We apply several variations of decentralized search to model human navigation in information networks and we evaluate the outcome in a series of experiments. In these experiments, we study the validity of decentralized search by comparing it with human navigational paths from an actual information network - Wikipedia. We find that (i) navigation in social networks appears to differ from human navigation in information networks in interesting ways and (ii) in order to apply decentralized search to information networks, stochastic adaptations are required. Our work illuminates a way towards using decentralized search as a valid model for human navigation in information networks in future work. Our results are relevant for scientists who are interested in modeling human behavior in information networks and for engineers who are interested in using models and simulations of human behavior to improve on structural or user interface aspects of hypertextual systems.
ACM Digital Library