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Social Search Using a Social Q&A Service Social Search Using a Social Q&A Service: Seeking Information and Assessing Credibility by Young Joo (Grace) Jeon A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Information) in the University of Michigan 2014 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Soo Young Rieh, Chair Professor Mark Steven Ackerman Associate Professor Clifford A. Lampe Assistant Professor Joshua Michael Pasek © Young Joo (Grace) Jeon 2014 Dedication To my loving father and mother, Hyunsoo Jeon and Seunghee Kim ii Acknowledgements This dissertation could have not been accomplished without help and support from mentors, colleagues, friends, and family. First and foremost, I would like to thank the chair of my committee and my adviser, Professor Soo Young Rieh, for her mentorship, guidance, and advice. Honestly, I might not have made it here without her. She helped to shape the trajectory of my work by both challenging and encouraging me as a researcher. I always feel more confident after meeting with her and receiving her insightful critiques and guidance. I cannot thank her enough. I am also deeply indebted to my other committee members, Professors Mark Ackerman, Cliff Lampe, and Josh Pasek, for their invaluable feedback and guidance along the way. I would also like to acknowledge the support of my peers and friends both inside and outside the School of Information throughout my years of doctoral study, although some of them will go unnamed here. Thanks to them, my journey has been less lonely, less stressful, and even quite enjoyable. I particularly want to thank Radaphat (Pae) Chongthammakun, Yong-Mi Kim, Tracy Xiao Liu, Ji Yeon Yang, Devan Donaldson, Rayoung Yang, and Mimi Nelson. I would also like to thank the research, administration, and computing staff at the School of Information for their help throughout this process, the Rackham Graduate School for support to carry out this research, and the 78 people who participated in this study. Finally, I would like to express my thanks to all of my family members. First, I never could have come this far without my parents’ unconditional love and support. My special thanks go to my sister, Young Sun Jeon, for always being my best friend and a constant cheerleader during my doctoral journey. I also thank my brother-in-law, and my adorable niece, Su Ahn Oh, and my brother and his family for their encouragement and support. iii Table of Contents Dedication ........................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... ix List of Appendices .............................................................................................................. x Abstract .............................................................................................................................. xi Chapter 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................. 1 1.1.1 Social Search ...................................................................................................1 1.1.2 Question Asking on Social Q&A Services .....................................................3 1.2 Problem Statement .................................................................................................. 4 1.3 Objectives and Research Questions ........................................................................ 6 1.4 Research Design...................................................................................................... 7 1.5 Significance............................................................................................................. 8 1.6 Structure of the Dissertation ................................................................................... 9 Chapter 2 Literature Review ............................................................................................ 10 2.1 Social Search ......................................................................................................... 10 2.1.1 What is Social Search?..................................................................................11 2.1.2 What is a Social Q&A Service? ....................................................................14 2.1.2.1 Question Asking and Answering in CMC Environments.........................14 2.1.2.2 Definition of a Social Q&A Service .........................................................18 2.1.3 Information Behavior Within Social Q&A Services ....................................21 2.1.3.1 User Behavior Patterns Within Social Q&A Services ..............................21 2.1.3.2 Why People Ask Questions Using Social Q&A Services ........................24 2.1.3.3 What Kinds of Questions People Are Asking on Social Q&A Services ..25 2.1.3.4 Why People Do or Do Not Answer a Question on Social Q&A Services26 2.1.3.5 What Affects Answer Quality and Quantity on Social Q&A Services ....29 2.1.4 Summary .......................................................................................................33 2.2 Credibility Assessment on the Web ...................................................................... 34 iv 2.2.1 Characteristics of the Web Environment ......................................................34 2.2.2 What is Credibility? ......................................................................................35 2.2.3 Theories and Models of the Credibility Assessment Process .......................37 2.2.4 Collective Credibility Assessment in the Web Environment .......................41 2.2.5 Factors Influencing Information Evaluation .................................................43 2.2.6 Criteria Used for Information Evaluation .....................................................47 2.2.7 Summary .......................................................................................................49 Chapter 3 Research Design .............................................................................................. 51 3.1 Overview ............................................................................................................... 51 3.2 Selection of Social Q&A Service ......................................................................... 55 3.3 Participant Recruitment ........................................................................................ 57 3.4 Data Collection Methods ...................................................................................... 58 3.4.1 Introductory Meeting ....................................................................................58 3.4.2 Use of Yahoo! Answers ................................................................................59 3.4.3 Post-Use Interview ........................................................................................59 3.4.4 Data Collected ...............................................................................................60 3.5 Data Analysis Methods ......................................................................................... 61 Chapter 4 Results ............................................................................................................. 64 4.1 Characteristics of Participants and Questions Collected ...................................... 64 4.1.1 Participants ....................................................................................................64 4.1.2 Questions Collected ......................................................................................67 4.2 Perception and Use of Yahoo! Answers ............................................................... 68 4.2.1 Perception of Yahoo! Answers .....................................................................69 4.2.1.1 Characteristics of Yahoo! Answers ..........................................................69 4.2.1.2 Benefits of Yahoo! Answers .....................................................................71 4.2.1.3 Costs of Yahoo! Answers .........................................................................74 4.2.2 Use of Yahoo! Answers in the Information-Seeking Process ......................76 4.2.2.1 Yahoo! Answers as a Secondary Search System ......................................77 4.2.2.2 Yahoo! Answers as a Collection of Questions and Answers ...................78 4.2.2.3 Yahoo! Answers as a Setting for Searching for Fun ................................80 4.2.3 Summary .......................................................................................................80 4.3 Social Search Using Yahoo! Answers .................................................................. 81 4.3.1 Goals .............................................................................................................81 4.3.2 Expectations for Answers .............................................................................85 4.3.2.1 Quantity of Answers .................................................................................85 4.3.2.2
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