[Esip-preserve] How Often Do Data Users Use URL's as a Navigational Search Aid?

[Bruce Barkstrom]

In thinking about collection structure, I've gotten to wondering whether
data seekers ever use the URL's in their browser as a search aid.
For example, sometimes a URL seems to go too deep, but I can
find useful information by lopping off the last set of characters
and redoing the search.

For example, I might have found

http://storms.ngs.noaa.gov/storms/apr11_tornado/

which has only the Tuscaloosa, AL tornado damage images.

However, if I lop off the last path chunk so I try

http://storms.ngs.noaa.gov/storms/

I get a directory structure that shows other storm image
collections.  Indeed, with just a little work in navigating through
the directory, I can find other directories that would let me
directly select the data files I might want.

The question isn't whether users should be able to do this,
but what we know about the frequency with which they
do this kind of navigation.  Maybe we want to hold the
user's hands too much.

I expect this is an issue that may affect our opinions
about the appropriate form of identifiers as well.

Bruce B.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.lists.esipfed.org/pipermail/esip-preserve/attachments/20130512/935bdc79/attachment.html>