PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report selective findings from a wider study of web‐based information‐seeking behaviour amongst biologists. It aims to describe: aspects of the participants' interactions with web‐based search tools; their feelings associated with these interactions, and the different types of searches that they carry out on the web.Design/methodology/approachData were collected by semi‐structured interviews, and were analysed using a grounded theory approach. A qualitative approach was adopted in order to allow deep exploration of the information‐seeking processes adopted by the target group.FindingsParticipants in this study typically categorized their web searches as either work‐related or everyday life searches. They felt more confident carrying out work‐related searches and their search strategies in this category of search were more effective: generally, their work‐related searches were well‐defined and specific. Their everyday life searches covered a wider range of topics, and were occasionally very challenging. Participants carrying out everyday life searches cited as common problems, the selection of apposite search terms, and uncertainty in selecting the most suitable database.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are based on a small sample of academic web users, and it will be useful to carry out follow‐up research using larger samples from biology or other areas of science. Despite this limitation, the findings clearly show the value of allowing users to customise web search facilities. They will also be of value to information literacy instructors developing information skills courses.Originality/valueBiologists' information‐seeking behaviour on the web has not been investigated before and the paper contributes to the current body of knowledge about information‐seeking behaviour by providing empirical findings relating to the behaviour of this particular group of web users.