  We analyze 18 million rows of Wi-Fi access logs collected over a one year
period from over 120,000 anonymized users at an inner-city shopping mall. The
anonymized dataset gathered from an opt-in system provides users' approximate
physical location, as well as Web browsing and some search history. Such data
provides a unique opportunity to analyze the interaction between people's
behavior in physical retail spaces and their Web behavior, serving as a proxy
to their information needs. We find: (1) the use of Wi-Fi network maps the
opening hours of the mall; (2) there is a weekly periodicity in users' visits
to the mall; (3) around 60% of registered Wi-Fi users actively browse the Web
and around 10% of them use Wi-Fi for accessing Web search engines; (4) people
are likely to spend a relatively constant amount of time browsing the Web while
their visiting duration may vary; (5) people tend to visit similar mall
locations and Web content during their repeated visits to the mall; (6) the
physical spatial context has a small but significant influence on the Web
content that indoor users browse; (7) accompanying users tend to access
resources from the same Web domains.
