A Goal-based Classification of Web Information Tasks

While researchers have been studying user activity on the Web since its inception, there remains a lack of understanding of the high level tasks in which users engage on the Web. We have recently conducted a field study in which participants were asked to annotate all web usage with a task description and categorization. Based on our analysis of participants’ recorded tasks during the field study, as well as previous research, we have developed a goal-based classification of information tasks which describes user activities on the Web.