Understanding the Relationship between Searchers’ Queries and Information Goals

Understanding the Relationship between Searchers’ Queries and Information Goals

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by Doug Downey , Susan Dumais , Dan Liebling , Eric Horvitz

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Datum	Value	Source
TITLE	Understanding the Relationship between Searchers’ Queries and Information Goals	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
AUTHOR NAME	Doug Downey	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
AUTHOR AFFIL	University of Washington	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
AUTHOR ADDR	Seattle, WA 98195	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
AUTHOR NAME	Susan Dumais	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
AUTHOR AFFIL	Microsoft Research	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
AUTHOR ADDR	Redmond, WA 98052	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
AUTHOR NAME	Dan Liebling	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
AUTHOR AFFIL	Microsoft Research	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
AUTHOR ADDR	Redmond, WA 98052	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
AUTHOR NAME	Eric Horvitz	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
AUTHOR AFFIL	Microsoft Research	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
AUTHOR ADDR	Redmond, WA 98052	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
ABSTRACT	We describe results from Web search log studies aimed at elucidating user behaviors associated with queries and destination URLs that appear with different frequencies. We note the diversity of information goals that searchers have and the differing ways that goals are specified. We examine rare and common information goals that are specified using rare or common queries. We identify several significant differences in user behavior depending on the rarity of the query and the destination URL. We find that searchers are more likely to be successful when the frequencies of the query and destination URL are similar. We also establish that the behavioral differences observed for queries and goals of varying rarity persist even after accounting for potential confounding variables, including query length, search engine ranking, session duration, and task difficulty. Finally, using an information-theoretic measure of search difficulty, we show that the benefits obtained by search and navigation actions depend on the frequency of the information goal.	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
CITATIONS	29 found	ParsCit 1.0