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How children search the internet with keyword interfaces

Published: 03 June 2009 Publication History

Abstract

Children are among the most frequent users of the Internet, yet searching and browsing the web can present many challenges. Studies over the past two decades on how children search were conducted with finite and pre-determined content found in CD-ROM applications, online digital libraries, and web directories. However, with the current popularity of the open Internet and keyword-based interfaces for searching it, more critical analysis of the challenges children face today is needed. This paper presents the findings of our initial study to understand how children ages 7, 9, and 11 search the Internet using keyword interfaces in the home. Our research has revealed that although today's children have been exposed to computers for most of their lives, spelling, typing, query formulation, and deciphering results are all still potential barriers to finding the information they need.

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cover image ACM Other conferences
IDC '09: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children
June 2009
347 pages
ISBN:9781605583952
DOI:10.1145/1551788
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 03 June 2009

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Author Tags

  1. children
  2. internet
  3. query formulation
  4. search
  5. search engine
  6. search results
  7. typing

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  • (2024)Children’s conversational voice search as learning: a literature reviewInformation and Learning Sciences10.1108/ILS-10-2023-0133126:1/2(8-28)Online publication date: 17-Jul-2024
  • (2024)Toward a conceptual framework characterizing the interplay of interest development, information search, and knowledge construction (ISK) in Children’s learningAslib Journal of Information Management10.1108/AJIM-01-2024-0041Online publication date: 24-Jun-2024
  • (2024)Does conversation lead to better searches? Investigating single-shot and multi-turn spoken searches with childrenInternational Journal of Child-Computer Interaction10.1016/j.ijcci.2024.10066841:COnline publication date: 1-Sep-2024
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