Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 3 April 1998:
Vol. 280. no. 5360, pp. 95 - 97
DOI: 10.1126/science.280.5360.95
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Strong Regularities in World Wide Web Surfing

Bernardo A. Huberman, Peter L. T. Pirolli, James E. Pitkow, Rajan M. Lukose

One of the most common modes of accessing information in the World Wide Web is surfing from one document to another along hyperlinks. Several large empirical studies have revealed common patterns of surfing behavior. A model that assumes that users make a sequence of decisions to proceed to another page, continuing as long as the value of the current page exceeds some threshold, yields the probability distribution for the number of pages that a user visits within a given Web site. This model was verified by comparing its predictions with detailed measurements of surfing patterns. The model also explains the observed Zipf-like distributions in page hits observed at Web sites.

Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA.

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
A Poissonian explanation for heavy tails in e-mail communication.
R. D. Malmgren, D. B. Stouffer, A. E. Motter, and L. A. N. Amaral (2008)
PNAS 105, 18153-18158
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Web-Based Information Search and Retrieval: Effects of Strategy Use and Age on Search Success.
A. J. Stronge, W. A. Rogers, and A. D. Fisk (2006)
Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 48, 434-446
   Abstract »    PDF »
Extracting knowledge from the World Wide Web.
M. Henzinger and S. Lawrence (2004)
PNAS 101, 5186-5191
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Traffic-based feedback on the web.
J. Aizen, D. Huttenlocher, J. Kleinberg, and A. Novak (2004)
PNAS 101, 5254-5260
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Modeling the Clickstream: Implications for Web-Based Advertising Efforts.
P. Chatterjee, D. L. Hoffman, and T. P. Novak (2003)
Marketing Science 22, 520-541
   Abstract »    PDF »
Scale-Free Behavior in Protein Domain Networks.
S. Wuchty (2001)
Mol. Biol. Evol. 18, 1694-1702
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Classes of small-world networks.
L. A. N. Amaral, A. Scala, M. Barthélémy, and H. E. Stanley (2000)
PNAS
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Emergence of Scaling in Random Networks.
A. Barabási and R. Albert (1999)
Science 286, 509-512
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Information epidemics, economics, and immunity on the internet.
E. Coiera (1998)
BMJ 317, 1469-1470
   Full Text »
Towards quality management of medical information on the internet: evaluation, labelling, and filtering of information.
G. Eysenbach, T. L Diepgen, J A M. Gray, M. Bonati, P. Impicciatore, C. Pandolfini, and S. Arunachalam (1998)
BMJ 317, 1496-1502
   Full Text »
Users and navigation patterns of a science World Wide Web site for the public.
W. P. Eveland Jr. and S. Dunwoody (1998)
Public Understanding of Science 7, 285-311
   Abstract »    PDF »
Classes of small-world networks.
L. A. N. Amaral, A. Scala, M. Barthelemy, and H. E. Stanley (2000)
PNAS 97, 11149-11152
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)