ABSTRACT
Since the advent of the World Wide Web (WWW, hereinafter referred to as the Web) in the early 1990s, the amount of information available online has grown exponentially. The technical development since then enables individuals worldwide to comfortably retrieve information on almost any topic and in almost any representation format imaginable (e.g., text, pictures, audio, video). Therefore, in recent years for many people the Web has become the major information source both in professional and personal life. To discover and access information on the Web, most people start by using a general search engine such as Google, Yahoo!, or MSN/ Bing. According to the latest report from the PEW Internet & American Life Project (Fallows 2008), Web searching has become an extremely popular Internet activity, with almost half (49%) of American internet users employing search engines on a “typical day” (only exceeded by e-mail usage with 60%).
