Overwhelmed by an extremely large volume of information on the Internet, it is difficult for a user to keep informed without a huge effort involved. The information that abounds on the Internet does not simplify the process of choice. In parallel, companies, in order to retain their consumers, more often use recommender systems on their websites, and their users seem to regard this alternative as a prescriptive strategy to solve their problems in their search for information and the consequent decision making process. How can recommendations influence a decision making process? By isolating this question it was possible to find the attributes that defined ways and objectives to begin this research. In the materialization of the research, the choice of elements in laboratory environments was rejected; instead, the research focuses its attention on real people, who perform real tasks in real conditions as well as on the process through which decisions are made in each individual´s environment. A qualitative approach is adopted related to the natural process of search for the information produced in a quasi-experimental basis. The results of the research show that, in order to solve one´s decision making problems in the phase of information search, people evaluate recommendations that websites progressively provide them, with the possibility of performing an internal search on companies websites and resorting to traditional search engines is practically not necessary.
Recommender Systems; Prescription; Decision Making; Web 2.0
