Information experience of undergraduate students when optimizing google search for their study

Background of the study: Google has become the most popular search engine worldwide and its name has its own merit within information search, as such when people are searching for information they would most often say ‘google it' rather than ‘look for it'.

Purpose: The present research employs information experience perspective that investigates students of Universitas Diponegoro when they are using Google search to help complete their assignments.

Method: The research method used to capture the information experience of Universitas Diponegoro students when using Google to look for information associated with their studies was the qualitative research method. Semi-structured interviews were used in this study to explore further information experience of students in exploring information using the Google search engine

Findings: The findings revealed that undergraduate students have their own techniques when using Google search. They are well familiar with formulating search queries; the majority being able to take on this stage of task easily. However, students found it challenging when they have to start evaluating which of the search results would give the most relevant information to help with their assignments.

Conclusions: Students' prior knowledge appeared to be the governing factor of how well they are able to determine which of the compiled information sources are best for their study. Every student has their own best approach and experience to optimize Google. Generally, it was found that the students within this study had similar ways in formulating keywords to search for information on Google and were only different in certain details of experiences.

Introduction

Google has become the most popular search engine worldwide and its name has its own merit within information search, as such when people are searching for information they would most often say ‘google it’ rather than ‘look for it’(Tan, 2022). The Google search engine is highly integrated into both the academic and daily lives of students, making it recognizably an unparalleled object to study within the scope of library and information science research. The Google search engine has simple interface that many, especially for students, find easy to learn how to use and operate(Alotaibi et al., 2023);(Alotaibi & Johnson, 2020). Google is, thus, much preferred by undergraduate students when they would want to extract and compile information sources especially when completing assignments(Heriyanto & Hariyati, 2020);(Sin, 2015)

With the degree of difficulties in concepts that has to be learned and understood in university, students have obvious need for information with their studies. To satisfy that need, universities typically provided sources of information through libraries. However, it is now the case that library service and collections are less used by students. This is more or less influenced by the predominance of digital technology in recent generations. Students that are raised within the recent era are largely familiar with information and communication technologies. Among these technologies is Google, in which they use to retrieve information.

Despite the high standard of quality of information required inherent to the academia within university, it does not make students be more reluctant in using Google as the first media to search for information. This is further facilitated by the Google Scholar feature devised in 2004 that is able to find and filter scientific information. Students now have access to an easy- to-use, comprehensive and highly effective search tool. They consider Google Scholar as a one stop shopping place for their research needs(Alotaibi & Johnson, 2020).

We now come to an era of the undeniable fact that library is no longer the only place that sources of information can be retrieved from. The rapid development of the Google search engine is able to disrupt the existence of libraries as a place to access sources of information. Sources of information are now available online and can readily be accessed through the easily operated search engine. This provides the large incentive for students to use them.(Todorinova, 2015)and(Bloom & Deyrup, 2015)suggested that Google has a great influence – and even shapes – how students search for information associated with their assignments and research activities. In 2018, researchers also conducted a similar study under a different context, whereby students of the Faculty of Humanities, Diponegoro University were the objects of study. The results of the study show that Google was the primary tool that is used by Diponegoro University students to search for information(Prasetyawan & Krismayani, 2019).

The choice of students in using Google to browse for information cannot completely be said fallacious. The previous research had succeeded in revealing the preferences and reasons as to why students use Google to search for information. This research explores information experience of undergraduate students when they use Google search for their study. Information Experience is understood as a phenomenon where a person experiences or obtains meaning when they interact with information within aspects of their daily lives(Bruce et al., 2014). By employing information experience lens, the researchers are brought to the existence of students’ thinking and feeling when interacting with Google search and the information resources available in it(Bruce et al., 2014);(Prasetyawan, 2019);(Miller et al., 2019)

Since the release date of Google Scholar to the public in 2004, several studies have emerged to compare Google Scholar’s information retrieval capabilities with other open access search tools and scientific databases subscribed by libraries. The studies indicated that although Google Scholar was able to retrieve high number of information, the relevance and scientific weight of the information compiled tended to be low when compared to scientific databases subscribed by libraries(Cho & Hwang, 2019);(Singh et al., 2023). However, there were researches that challenges such findings. One of the examples is the research conducted by Duffin. He compared information search results performance between Google Scholar and 5 other open acces search tools using spesific search method. The results of this study indicated that Google Scholar was outperformed specialty open access search tools(Duffin, 2020).

There was also a study that compared student perceptions of the Google Scholar interface with the Library Information Retrieval System. The results of this study indicated that the Google Scholar interface was simpler and easier to use than the Library Information Retrieval System(Wu & Chen, 2014);(Golub et al., 2023). Thus, it is not surprising that Google is still the favorite of students when finding information resources. This finding was also reinforced by the results of(Bloom & Deyrup, 2015);(Perruso, 2016);(Prasetyawan & Krismayani, 2019);(Todorinova, 2015). The finding confirms why students are inclines to use Google as their primary information search tool. It is not an easy matter to force students to change their preferences or habits of searching for information through Google. Instead of forcing change, the more strategic step is to approach and understand the behavior or experiences of students when interacting with Google