A Tale of Two Web Spaces: Comparing Sites Using Web Impact Factors.

Abstract

Ingwersen has suggested the web impact factor (WIF) as a means for comparing relative attractiveness or influence of web spaces. The WIF of a web space is the number of pages linking to a web space, divided by the number of pages in the web space. The numbers of links and pages can be determined using web search engines such as AltaVista, and this paper examines methodological issues associated with this determination. Three distinct WIFs can be calculated: the external WIF, reflecting the number of pages linking from outside the web space being measured; the self-link WIF, reflecting links made from inside the web space; and an overall WIF, combining external and self-links. External WIFs are probably the most significant. WIFs can be calculated for top level domains such as countries; however these appear to be unreliable. This paper compares WIFs for two different types of web spaces: Australasian universities and Australasian electronic journals. For large organisations such as universities or research institutions, WIFs seem to be a useful measure of the overall influence of the web space. However for smaller spaces such as electronic journals the WIF is less reliable as a measure.