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Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show that digital natives are different from older age groups.
Design/methodology/approach
The first survey asks questions about general computer searching behaviors. The second survey asks the students to find two items to see if they can find them.
Findings
Digital natives are different in their search behavior, preferring to use web‐based search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.
Research limitations/implications
There are 120 respondents to the first survey and 27 in the second.
Practical implications
More focus needs to be placed on the digital natives' search habits to find out how best to serve this population.
Social implications
Unless digital natives are taught how to search academic databases, they will be done a great disservice.
Originality/value
The two surveys are unique in data content.
© Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2012
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