What kinds of development problems can be solved by searching the web?: a field study

ABSTRACTDevelopers use the Web as a tool to find information to help them solve their software development problems. However, little is known about what kinds of problems motivate developers to do searches on the Web. We asked twenty-five developers to record their Web searches at a medium-sized software company. We also observed twelve developers. In our analysis, we found that there are six main kinds of problems. One, developers want to find procedural information, such as quick references about how to solve some programming problems. Two, developers use the Web as a memory aid to remember details about how to solve a problem they solved before. Three, developers want to solve a knowledge problem, for example, learning some new concepts. Four, developers want to find information to understand and solve errors. Five, developers need information to judge the suitability of software components being evaluated. Finally, in the "Other" category, we included problems such as searching for software to download or translating functions.