A recent Penn State study found that most Web search queries can be classified into one of three categories: informational, navigational or transactional. According to PSU, “Informational searching involves looking for a specific fact or topic, navigational searching seeks to locate a specific Web site and transactional searching looks for information related to buying a particular product or service.”
Results of the survey showed that based on more than 1.5 million queries, about 80 percent of queries were informational, with about 10 percent each for navigational and transactional searches.
The study was performed by Jim Jansen, assistant professor in Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology, along with IST undergraduate Danielle Booth and Amanda Spink, Queensland University of Technology.
Source: PSU
