Abstract
Online information seekers make heavy use of websites that accept their natural language questions. This study compared the three types of such websites: social question and answer (Q&A), digital reference services, and ask-an-expert services. Questions reflecting daily life, research, and crisis situations were posed to high use websites of all three types. The resulting answers' characteristics were analyzed in terms of speed, transparency, formality, and intimacy. The results indicate that social Q&A websites excel in speed, ask-an-expert websites in intimacy, and digital reference services in transparency and formality.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 212-226 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue number | 3-4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2 2015 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Ask-an-expert services
- Digital reference services
- Information seeking
- Q&A websites
- Social Q&A
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Information Systems
- Media Technology
- Computer Science Applications