GVU's 10th WWW User Survey
This is the main document for the Graphic, Visualization, & Usability Center's (GVU) 10th WWW User Survey. GVU runs the Surveys as public service and as such, all results are available online (subject to certain terms and conditions). The 10th Survey was run from October 10, 1998 through December 15, 1998. The GVU Survey is now also sponsored by a Corporate Council that provides financial support to the survey effort as well as providing new directions for the surveys to explore. Special pointers to the survey were provided by Yahoo, MindSpring and DoubleClick.
[ Survey Home ] [ 10th Survey Home ] [ Graphs ] [ Reports ] [ Datasets ]The winners of the $100 cash prizes for the Tenth Survey are: Chris D. (New Jersey), Joyce R. (North Carolina), Michael F. (California), Alethea B. (Texas), Caroline P. (Canada), Eric H. (Washington), Chris S. (Pennsylvania), Rochelle W. (New Zealand), and Ingrid M. (California). Congratulations and thanks to all who participated!
Over 5,000 web users participated in the survey. Questions were asked on the following topics:
Basic Sections: Electronic Commerce: Special Sections:
Get an overview of the findings by reading: Read about previous surveys in:
Tenth Survey Report[HTML]General Survey Information (Past & Future Surveys)
Special Presentation of Selected Results for the WWW History Day (April 1997)
Published Papers & Presentations on the Surveys
Media Responses, Press Releases, & AppearancesUnderstand how the results are collected by reading: Survey Methodology and Limitations of the results, and Technical InformationDig into the details by looking at the:Tables and Graphs (GIF) for each questionConduct your own analysis by using our:Collected Datasets, andLook at other web and internet surveys at:
Original QuestionnairesCyber DialogueRead the fine print:
CyberAtlas - a good starting point
Nua Internet Surveys - monthly coverage of major surveys
More sources...Special Thanks
Copyright Information
The WWW-Surveying Mailing List
WWW Corporate Council
Executive Summary
Click here for Executive Summary
Sampling
There are two types of sampling, random and non-probabilistic. Random sampling creates a sample using a random process for selection of elements from the entire population. Thus, each element has an equal chance of being chosen to become part of the sample. To illustrate, suppose that the universe of entities consists of a hat that contains five slips of paper. A method to select elements from the hat using a random process would be to 1) shake the contents of the hat, 2) reach into the hat, and 3) pick an slip of paper with one's eyes closed. This process would ensure that each slip of paper had an equal chance of being selected. As a result, one could not claim that some slips of paper were favored over the others, causing a bias in the sample.
Given that the sample was selected using a random process, and each element had an equal chance of being selected for the sample, results obtained from measuring the sample can generalize to the entire population. This statistical affordance is why random sampling is widely used in surveys. After all, the whole purpose of a survey is to collect data on a group and have confidence that the results are representative of the entire population. Random digit dialing, also called RDD, is a form of random sampling where phone numbers are selected randomly and interviews of people are conducted over the phone.
Non-probabilistic sampling does not ensure the elements are selected in random manner. It is difficult then to guarantee that certain portions of the population were not excluded from the sample since elements do not have an equal chance of being selected. To continue with the above example, suppose that the slips of paper are colored. A non-probabilistic methodology might select only certain colors for the sample. It becomes possible that the slips of paper that were not selected differ in some way from those that were selected. This would indicate a systematic bias in the sampling methodology. Note that it is entirely possible that the colored slips that were not selected did not differ from the selected slips, but this could only be determined by examining both sets of slips.
Self-selection
Since there is no centralized registry of all users of the Internet and users are spread out all over the world, it becomes quiet difficult to select users of the entire population at random. To simplify the problem most surveys of the Internet focus on a particular region of users, which is typically the United States, though surveys of European, Asian, and Oceanic users have also been conducted. Still, the question becomes how to contact users and get them to participate. The traditional methodology is to use RDD. While this ensures that the phone numbers and thus users are selected at random, it potentially suffers from other problems as well, namely self-selection.
Self-selection occurs when the entities in the sample are given a choice to participate. If a set of members in the sample decides not to participate, it reduces the ability of the results to generalize to the entire population. This decrease in the confidence of the survey occurs since the group of that decided not to participate may differ in some manner from the group that participated. It is important to note that self-selection occurs in nearly all surveys of people. In the case of RDD, if a call is placed to a number in the sample and the user hangs up the phone, self-selection has occurred. Likewise, if in a mail-based survey, certain users do not respond, self-selection has occurred. While there are techniques like double sampling to deal with those members who chose not to participate or respond, most surveys do not employ these techniques due to their high cost.
GVU's WWW User Survey Methodology
Unlike most other surveys, GVU's WWW User Surveys are conducted over the Web, i.e., participants respond to questionnaires posted on the Web. In fact, GVU pioneered the entire field of Web-based surveying in January of 1994, being the first publicly accessible Web-based survey. The GVU Center conducts the surveys every sixth months as a public service to the WWW community.
The GVU Surveys employ non-probabilistic sampling. Participants are solicited in the following manner:
New to the Sixth Survey was the introduction of an incentive cash prizes. Respondents that completed at least four questionnaires became eligible to for the several $250 US awards. Our initial investigation into the effect of including incentives into the design of the surveys reveals that while the overall number of respondents did not increase tremendously, the total number of completed questionnaires did increase significantly. Compared to the Third Survey, which had over 23,000 respondents to the General Questionnaire and 60,000 completed questionnaires (average 2.6 complete questionnaires/user), the Seventh Survey received over 19,000 responses to the General Questionnaire and close to 88,000 completed questionnaires (average 4.6 complete questionnaires/user). The effect of offering incentives on self-selection is an open research issue, though it is a technique that has been employed widely though out traditional survey methodologies, e.g., Nielsen's set-top box sample, etc. For the Ninth survey, ten respondents were chosen to receive a $100 cash prize.
Since random sampling techniques are not employed consistently though out the methodology, the ability of the collected data to generalize to the entire population is reduced, because certain members of the Web user community may not have had an equal chance to participate. The characteristics of these users may differ significantly from those users who did participate in the surveys. As it turns out, comparison of the GVU's WWW User Surveys results to other WWW User data published that utilize random techniques reveal that the main area where GVU's Surveys show a bias exists in the experience, intensity of usage, and skill sets of the users, but not the core demographics of users. Intuitively this makes sense, as only those users that are able to use the WWW are able to participate in the Surveys, whereas a set of RDD users may claim to be able to use the Internet or have used the Web at some time in the past. These users are not likely to be included in the GVU results. However, for many marketing needs, this bias is exactly what is desired of the data: real data from real users online today.
Given the limitations that exist in the data as a result of the methodology, we make the following recommendation to those using the data presented within this report:
Most analyses were conducted using SPSS 8.0 for WindowsNT. Additional analyses were conducted with Excel 98 on WindowsNT.
Execution
The Surveys were executed on a dedicated quad processor Sun Sparc 20's. All HTML pages were generated on the fly via our Survey Engine (written in PERL). For more information about how the Surveys Engine actually works, see the write-up in the paper on the Second Survey Results. For those interested in more information about the Adaptive Java Surveying Applet, please see the write up in Surveying the Territory: GVU's Five WWW User Surveys, Colleen M. Kehoe & James E. Pitkow, The World Wide Web Journal, Vol. 1, no. 3. Please direct inquiries about the availability of the survey code to: www-survey@cc.gatech.edu.
Questionnaires and advice were contributed by:
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for their support in advertising the Tenth Survey.