Browsing Feature
Browsing is a natural and effective approach to many information-seeking problems and requires less effort and knowledge on the part of the user. The literature suggests that a great deal of the use of the Web relies on known Web sites, recommended sites, or return visits to sites recently visited—thus relying on browsing rather than on searching. Jenkins, Corritore, and Widenbeck found that domain novices seldom clicked very deep— out and back—while Web experts explored more deeply. Holscher and Strube note that Hurtineene and Wandtke claim that only minimal training is necessary for browsing an individual Web site, while Pollok and Hockley claim that considerably more experience is required for querying and navigating among sites. Hancock-Beaulieu found that between 30 percent and
45 percent of all online searches, regardless of the type of search, are concluded with browsing the library shelves.
A browsing option can assist users to effectively find the desired documents by clustering related documents based on terms in a thesaurus.