Investigating behavioral variability in web search

Ryen W. White, Steven M. Drucker
2007 Proceedings of the 16th international conference on World Wide Web - WWW '07  
Understanding the extent to which people's search behaviors differ in terms of the interaction flow and information targeted is important in designing interfaces to help World Wide Web users search more effectively. In this paper we describe a longitudinal log-based study that investigated variability in people' s interaction behavior when engaged in search-related activities on the Web. We analyze the search interactions of more than two thousand volunteer users over a five-month period, with
more » ... he aim of characterizing differences in their interaction styles. The findings of our study suggest that there are dramatic differences in variability in key aspects of the interaction within and between users, and within and between the search queries they submit. Our findings also suggest two classes of extreme usernavigators and explorerswhose search interaction is highly consistent or highly variable. Lessons learned from these users can inform the design of tools to support effective Web-search interactions for everyone.
doi:10.1145/1242572.1242576 dblp:conf/www/WhiteD07 fatcat:xzcpqphsh5d4pfy5yxpajkcvom