INTERFACE SEARCH GOOGLE AND YAHOO: the user experience from the viewpoint of eye tracking

Abstract

The amount of available Web pages reached such a size that made it more difficult to retrieve information manually, requiring mechanisms that can help in this process. In this context, the search mechanisms can be considered as an important category of cyberspace, especially in the area of Information Science, because it concerns the organization of knowledge in this environment, in which Google has been considered the gateway in cyberspace. In recent years new elements with structured data were inserted in the Google result pages, which can create conditions for visual changes in the behavior of users. From this hypothesis, this paper presents results obtained through an experimental investigation with twenty participants using the technology of eye tracking and its use within the context of the user experience. The results showed that the rich snippet element was able to influence the behavior of users on the Google results pages, since 100% of users have chosen a link that has such an element. Comparing user behavior when choosing the results on Google and Yahoo was possible to verify that the tests with Google participants needed about 30% less time to decide on the choice of the link. It was found that the presentation of results in a search engine may be able to influence the behavior of participants on the decision-making process and the consequent choice of the link.