5.2 Feature: Efficiency 5.2.1 Search Market Efficiency A search market consists of three components: content providers, selection process, and access. By separating these components, which may almost simultaneously in a typical sear ch process, we can compare different types of search activities and evaluate their effici fences (1)Content providers. The contents provided by sellers largely defines the informational pace a search can occupy. Understandably, some product information may not yet be available in digital format. Information that does already exist includes primary sources such as company web pages and secondary sources such as bot-generated indexes and evaluation databases. Secondary brokes often filter and reduce the amount of information but add the expertise of the information 2)Selection. The process of electronic selection consists of various forms of information query based on keywords or subjects. Interactive queries result in individualized sorts. A non-interactive selection process includes classified ads, directories, or ot her types of information organized by some preselected criteria and searches on Lycos or Yahoo are this selection process (3)Access. Through selection, consumers have a list of information sites that fit their search criteria. But, to actually view these documents, selected information must be downloaded or accessed by visiting the Web sites. The access occurs in two stages: connecting and retrieving An ideal search market therefore allows consumers a series of filtering process by which they may reduce the universe of available information to a manageable and meaningful size. An efficient Internet search market can be depicted, as in Figure 5.1, as the content space available on the Internet containing the set of selected information. which also contains accessed information space. In this case, even though some product information is only available offline, the online earch market is efficient because all contents that are relevant (the area of the pentagon) exist online(the rounded rectangle). In other words, one is a proper subset of the other in the order of contents,(2)selection, and (3)access. If any or some of them are not a proper subset, the search market is not efficient. For example, if some contents, which are needed in(2) selection process are not available online, the search process cannot be efficient physical market n the Internet Contents pamat and in on the internet in digital physical market Relevant information Accessed and etrieved information Figure5-1 An efficient Internet search market In Figure 5.2,(a) shows a case where some information, although relevant, is not available online. As a result, only the contents accessible online are retrieved. Even when contents are available online, the search market may fail if these contents are not accessible, for example due to access restriction or congestion(see() and(c)in Figure 5.2). Finally, consumers may have to rely on both online and off-line information channels to complete a search(see (d)in Figure 5.2)5.2 Feature: Efficiency 5.2 .1 Search Market Efficiency A search market consists of three components: content providers, selection process, and access. By separating these components, which may occur almost simultaneously in a typical search process, we can compare different types of search activities and evaluate their efficiencies. (1) Content providers. The contents provided by sellers largely defines the informational space a search can occupy. Understandably, some product information may not yet be available in digital format. Information that does already exist includes primary sources such as company web pages and secondary sources such as bot-generated indexes and evaluation databases. Secondary sources often filter and reduce the amount of information but add the expertise of the information brokers. (2) Selection. The process of electronic selection consists of various forms of information query based on keywords or subjects. Interactive queries result in individualized sorts. A non-interactive selection process includes classified ads, directories, or other types of information brokers, where entries are organized by some preselected criteria and presented as such. Internet searches on Lycos or Yahoo are this selection process. (3) Access. Through selection, consumers have a list of information sites that fit their search criteria. But, to actually view these documents, selected information must be downloaded or accessed by visiting the Web sites. The access occurs in two stages: connecting and retrieving processes. An ideal search market, therefore, allows consumers a series of filtering process by which they may reduce the universe of available information to a manageable and meaningful size. An efficient Internet search market can be depicted, as in Figure 5.1, as the content space available on the Internet containing the set of selected information, which also contains accessed information space. In this case, even though some product information is only available offline, the online search market is efficient because all contents that are relevant (the area of the pentagon) exist online (the rounded rectangle). In other words, one is a proper subset of the other in the order of (1) contents, (2) selection, and (3) access. If any or some of them are not a proper subset, the search market is not efficient. For example, if some contents, which are needed in (2) selection process, are not available online, the search process cannot be efficient. Figure5-1 An efficient Internet search market In Figure 5.2, (a) shows a case where some information, although relevant, is not available online. As a result, only the contents accessible online are retrieved. Even when contents are available online, the search market may fail if these contents are not accessible, for example due to access restriction or congestion (see (b) and (c) in Figure 5.2). Finally, consumers may have to rely on both online and off-line information channels to complete a search (see (d) in Figure 5.2)