Parallel browsing behavior on the web

Abstract

Parallel browsing describes a behavior where users visit Web pages in multiple concurrent threads. Web browsers explicitly support this by providing tabs. Although parallel browsing is more prevalent than linear browsing online, little is known about how users perform this activity. We study the use of parallel browsing through a log-based study of millions of Web users and present findings on their behavior. We identify a power law distribution in browser metrics comprising "outclicks" and tab switches, which signify the degree of parallel browsing. We find that users switch tabs at least 57.4% of the time, but user activity, measured in pageviews, is split among tabs rather than increasing overall activity. Finally, analysis of a subset of the logs focused on Web search shows that while the majority of users do not branch from search engine result pages, the degree of branching is higher for non-navigational queries. Our findings have design implications for Web sites and browsers, search interfaces, and log analysis.

An Interactive Visualization for Tabbed Browsing Behavior Analysis

“…While diverse and functional, none of these methods focuses on the complex parallel browsing habits of today, where tabs and windows have become means for the user to organize his thoughts, actions and accessed information [14]. The importance of a tool for visualizing, analyzing and comparing parallel browser behavior is further highlighted in [4], since users tend to use multiple windows and tabs as means for backtracking (e.g., users abandon the use of in-browser back operations in favor of opening new tabs and switching between them) and multitasking (e.g., users interact with one tab while Web pages are being loaded and processed in others).…”

“…It has to embed rich meta-information that could be of interest for the user of WebComets, i.e., for researchers in information retrieval, behavioral sciences and related fields (called tool user or analyst in this paper). Following the study described in [14], typical research questions for a better understanding of parallel browsing behavior on the Web are for example: When and to what extent are users parallel browsing on the Web? What a↵ects parallel browsing behavior during interaction with Web search results?…”

“…More importantly, browsers do not focus on capturing the parent-child relationships between accessed Web pages and even less the connections between opened tabs or windows. Other researchers have also encountered this di culty when investigating the parallel browsing behavior of Internet users [14]. The unavailable information included, among others, missing source tabs for branching operations and no information on how a tab or window was created (new tab, hyperlink click).…”

“…The information collected in this manner can be subsequently accessed and visualized for multiple browsing sessions and users. For any current user profile, the extension saves the navigated URLs together with relevant additional information, representing a combination of a subset of the metrics employed in [14] and a set of additional metrics relevant to the analysis and comparison of parallel browsing habits. Additional details about the EBH data are highlighted in our related publication [6].…”

“…In this paper, we address the problem of designing an interactive visualization tool for Internet browser histories that supports intuitive search operations based on content and context information, and that allows the tool user to more quickly find, compare and analyze parallel navigation behavior based on a set of existing-e.g., those described in [14]-and novel metrics. This work extends the research presented in [6].…”