| To be published in the Information Science and Knowledge Management Series |
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| Web
Search: Public Searching of the Web, co-authored by Drs.
Amanda Spink and Bernard J. Jansen, is one of the first
manuscripts that address the human – system interaction
of Web searching in a thorough and complete manner. The
authors provide an examination of Web searching from multiple
levels of analysis, from theoretical overview to detailed
study of term usage, and integrate these different levels
of analysis into a coherent picture of how people locate
information on the Web using search engines.
This research is directly relevant to those interested in providing information or services on the Web, along those who research and study the Web as an information resource. Graduate students, academic and corporate researchers, search engine designers, information architects, and search engine optimizers will find the book of particular benefit. For up-to-date information, visit http://www.wkap.nl/ Contents Preface For order information, click here. Research Award URG Project Title: Modeling Multitasking Web Search Multitasking is the human ability to handle the demands of multiple tasks. People often multitask and information task switch when using information retrieval (IR) technologies as they look for information on more than one topic over single or multiple search episodes. Multitasking information seeking and searching behaviors are currently poorly understood and such user behavior has little support from current Web/IR technologies. The proposed research will model users’ multitasking Web search interactions and identify Web/IR system requirements to support multitasking search. We will conduct an empirical investigation of the multitasking search behaviors by 40 students who engage in Web/IR technologies interactions through a controlled experiment, observations, interviews, search log analysis and search diaries. This timely and innovative project will be used to model Web users’ multitasking information behavior. A critical need exists for studies that enhance theoretical and behavioral models to include multitasking information behavior. The project will also fund a graduate student research assistant. The study results will have implications for the design of Web /IR systems and interfaces, and further research. |
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Web Searching
Drawing primarily on their own research and work in
the field, the authors present the temporal changes in,
the growth of, and the stability of how people interact
with Web search engines. Drs. Spink and Jansen present
results from an analysis of multiple search engine data
sets over a six year period, giving a firsthand account
of the emergence of Web searching. They also compare
and contrast their findings to the results of other researchers
in the field, providing a valuable biographic resource.