New tab page recommendations cause a strong suppression of exploratory web browsing behaviors
Homanga Bharadhwaj, Nisheeth Srivastava

TL;DR
This study demonstrates that typical 'New Tab' page recommendations significantly suppress users' exploratory browsing behaviors, limiting access to diverse information sources through experimental and simulation evidence.
Contribution
The paper provides empirical and simulation evidence showing that standard recommendation methods on 'New Tab' pages hinder web exploration, revealing a cognitive bias effect in UI design.
Findings
Recommendations reduce access to infrequent pages
Suppression effect is significant at individual level
Simulation predicts decreased discovery of new sources
Abstract
Through a combination of experimental and simulation results, we illustrate that passive recommendations encoded in typical computer user-interfaces (UIs) can subdue users' natural proclivity to access diverse information sources. Inspired by traditional demonstrations of a part-set cueing effect in the cognitive science literature, we performed an online experiment manipulating the operation of the 'New Tab' page for consenting volunteers over a two month period. Examination of their browsing behavior reveals that typical frequency and recency-based methods for displaying websites in these displays subdues users' propensity to access infrequently visited pages compared to a situation wherein no web page icons are displayed on the new tab page. Using a carefully designed simulation study, representing user behavior as a random walk on a graph, we inferred quantitative predictions about…
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Taxonomy
TopicsMisinformation and Its Impacts · Mobile Crowdsensing and Crowdsourcing · Personal Information Management and User Behavior
