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Browsing

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Database Systems

  • 42 Accesses

Synonyms

Perusal; Scanning

Definition

“Browsing” has two definitions in the context of visual interfaces for database systems:

  1. 1.

    The human activity of visual perception and interpretation of electronic content when there is no specific target object being sought

  2. 2.

    The human activity of clicking or tapping on a sequence of elements in an information display that results in a sequence of screens of information state

Definition (1) implies something about the mental intent of the user performing the act of information processing. The intent can be to learn the gist of “what is there.” It may be to take in information in order to be entertained or informed. Or it may simply be a part of involuntary visual scanning within an environment. In the physical world, examples include flipping through the pages of a book, scanning quickly through a menu, or glancing down a store aisle.

Definition (2) is used in the context of contrasting the human-computer interaction paradigm of link-following...

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Recommended Reading

  1. Pirolli P. Information foraging theory: adaptive interaction with information. New York: Oxford University Press; 2007.

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  2. Spence R, Witkowski M. Rapid serial visual presentation: design for cognition. London: Springer; 2013.

    Google Scholar 

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc., Cambridge, MA, USA

    Kent Wittenburg

Authors
  1. Kent Wittenburg
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kent Wittenburg .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Ling Liu

  2. University of Waterloo School of Computer Science, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    M. Tamer Özsu

Section Editor information

  1. Dept. di Ingegneria Informatica, Automatica e Gestionale, Universita di Roma, Via Ariosto 25, Roma, 185, Italy

    Tiziana Catarci

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© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Wittenburg, K. (2016). Browsing. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7993-3_41-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7993-3_41-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-7993-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Computer SciencesReference Module Computer Science and Engineering

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