Searching through cyberspace: The effects of link display and link density on information retrieval from hypertext on the World Wide Web

This study investigated information retrieval from hypertext on Internet's World Wide Web (WWW), Significant main and interaction effects were found for both link density (number of links per display) and display format (in paragraphs or lists) on search performance, Low link densities displayed in list format produced the best overall results, in terms of search accuracy, search time, number of links explored, and search task prioritization. Lowell densities affected user ability to prioritize search tasks:and produced more accurate searches, while list displays positively affected all aspects of searching except task prioritization. The performance of novices and experts, in terms of their previous experience browsing hypertext on the WWW, was compared. Experts performed better, mostly because of their superior task prioritization.