Factors affecting the selection of web browsers by university students: special reference to Rajarata university of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Web browsers are amazing. They make the World Wide Web accessible to everyone. People can read web pages by means of web browsers. Many different web browsers are available on the Internet, free of charge. In addition to most popular web browsers that have superb features people might like more, such as faster, free, secure, and different by design, better interface and such. So, people need to take time experimenting with diverse web browsers to find the one they like best if still using the device’s default web browser. This study aims to investigate the factors affecting the selection of web browsers by keeping the straight attention on university undergraduates because, web browser usage has deeply penetrated the academicians not only with their academic workloads but also several purposes. A sample of one hundred and thirty undergraduates who are currently studying in Rajarata University of Sri Lanka selected through stratified sampling technique and research data were collected through structured questionnaire for the study purpose. Descriptive Statistics, Correlation Analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis were used to analyze the data. As per the study findings Browser Performance, Security, Awareness and User Friendliness are the factors need to look at when selecting the web browser to go on. From these results it can be concluded that Browser Performance and Awareness factors were positively and significantly impacted to the Selection of Web Browsers and Security and User Friendliness factors positively but not significantly impacted. The researcher recommends the future researchers to conduct same studies on similar topics, academicians and information seekers for enhance their web browser horizons and web browser developers and technology institutions for provide better web browser products and services by getting the key factors which highlighted in this study in order to their web browsers be the selective web browsers of peoples’ web browser list ever.