The internet can be studied, and used to study, qualitatively as well as quantitatively.
Three examples are:
Integrating online internet usage into focus groups and in-depth interviews can be extremely useful for such researh as:
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general website evaluation;
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evaluation of online products or services;
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competitor evaluation;
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design / navigation / usability testing.
These focus groups or interviews are run in the normal fashion, but all participants are able to use the internet at certain stages, as required in the research design. Particularly valuable is gaining an understanding about what users would expect from the site, and be likely to use, in the context of all their other options.
Observational research does not actively interview respondents, but instead observes their behaviour and draws conclusions from this. In the online environment, observing personal websites, blogs (personal online journals) or chatrooms dedicated to the subject of interest can provide interesting insights into people’s thoughts and actions.
These can be very useful for select subjects or markets. Run like private chatrooms, recruited participants log in at a given time and can see what other participants (and the group moderator) are typing in, in real time. This format does have some limitations, but can be useful for discussing extremely personal subjects or for researching people difficult to bring together physically.