Future of Information Seeking on the Internet and Web Advertising: How Can We Guide Web Advertising for Users' Information Seeking on a Website?

Abstract

Websites have become an important source of information in our daily lives. As more people spend time on the Internet, websites have become popular media for advertising. There are three major stakeholders in Web advertising: Web ad providers, website owners, and viewers. It is important to understand the effects of Web advertising on information seeking behavior for these stakeholders. This qualitative meta-analysis provides a comprehensive picture of information seeking behavior in a Web advertising situation. Also, it gives a useful guideline for both Web ad providers and website owners on how to design and display Web ads by considering the Web ads’ effectiveness and viewers’ information seeking behaviors. Based on extensive empirical studies, we recommend nine suggestions on how to minimize viewers’ annoyance with Web ads and how to maximize Web ads’ effects on viewers. We believe that we may need to consider both Web ads providers’ and viewers’ perspectives in future research with a balanced view of Web ads and information seeking.