Browsing capabilities in interactive information systems have traditionally consisted simply of the capability to scan down a list, moving a cursor to display more information to scan.  Indeed, many standard definitions of browsing state or imply that browsing consists, in its essence, of scanning.  It is argued here that this conception of browsing grossly mis-states the nature of the process.  Our misunderstanding of the nature of browsing has led to the provision of the wrong sort of browsing capabilities for the information searcher in online systems.  Providing a scanning capability is fine, but it does not support browsing, which is a more complex and interesting behavior.  

Drawing on psychological and anthropological literature, the author has recently made the argument that:

Browsing is seen to consist of a series of four steps, iterated indefinitely until the end of a browsing episode: 1) glimpsing a field of vision, 2) selecting or sampling a physical or informational object within the field of vision, 3) examining the object, 4) acquiring the object (conceptually and/or physically) or abandoning it. Not all of these elements need be present in every browsing episode, though multiple glimpses are seen to be the minimum to constitute the act.

In other words, browsing consists of glimpses, not scanning.  In a glimpse, the browser sees a wide area of the environment all at once, catches sight of something of interest within that area, then focuses in on the object of interest, examines it more closely (visually or haptically), then engages in a new glimpse.  Based on psychological research on visual search, this way of browsing is actually a surprisingly efficient way of searching an unknown environment.  The detailed research is described that has been done by psychologists on visual search.  They have demonstrated that visual search is actually a two-stage process, which this common human behavioral pattern for browsing perfectly captures, and thus optimally utilizes.  

Implications are drawn for interactive information system design.