InfoScent evaluator: a semi-automated tool to evaluate semantic appropriateness of hyperlinks in a web site

Abstract

In this paper, we present InfoScent Evaluator, a tool that automatically evaluates the semantic appropriateness of the descriptions of hyperlinks in web pages. The tool is based on a theoretical model of users' behavior when engaged in information search tasks, called Information Foraging theory. A textual description of the user's search goal is compared with the textual description of each probable hyperlink, using Latent Semantic Analysis, a statistical technique that evaluates the distance between the two texts. Through this approach the most probable path that the user will follow in order to access the sought web page can be predicted. Thus, the tool can be used to evaluate the web site in terms of appropriateness of hyperlink text and of information architecture. We argue that the presented tool could substantially aid design and evaluation of a web site.