What Presentation of Search Engine Results Do Health Information Searchers Prefer?

A study of a sample of online health information searchers was conducted to see what their preferences are with respect to four different display styles for search engine results on health topics. Screen shots of search result display screens were presented to the participants via a Qualtrics (www.qualtrics.com) online survey. The other display types were Display 1: Google standard display, Display 2: Google enhanced with faceted browsable categories, Display 3: Google enhanced with a word cloud for each search result, and Display 4: Google enhanced with an overview word cloud for collection of search results. For each search task, participants were asked to rate the search engine results displays for quality indicators, using Likert-type item rating scales. At the end, in three concluding questions, the participants were asked to choose the display(s) that were best at meeting three specific criteria, based on overall impressions. The evaluations by the participants suggest that the standard Google search results display and the Google screen enhanced with faceted browsable categories were favored over the other two display types.Master of Science in Information Scienc