Fading away: Dilution and user behaviour

Paul Thomas; Falk Scholer; Alistair Moffat

doi:10.1.1.401.2660

Fading away: Dilution and user behaviour

Paul Thomas
, Falk Scholer
, Alistair Moffat

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

When faced with a poor set of document summaries on the first page of returned search results, a user may respond in various ways: by proceeding on to the next page of results; by entering another query; by switching to another service; or by abandoning their search. We analyse this aspect of searcher behaviour using a commercial search system, comparing a deliberately degraded system to the original one. Our results demonstrate that searchers naturally avoid selecting poor results as answers given the degraded system; however, the depth of the ranking that they view, their query reformulation rate, and the amount of time required to complete search tasks, are all remarkably unchanged.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval 2013
Editors	Max L. Wilson,Tony Russell-Rose,Birger Larsen,Preben Hansen,Kristi
Place of Publication	unknown
Publisher	EuroHCIR Workshop Proceedings
Pages	3-6
Edition	Peer Reviewed
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1.1.401.2660
Publication status	Published - 2013
Event	Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval (EuroHCIR 2013 and SIGIR 2013) - Dublin Ireland Duration: 1 Jan 2013 → …

Conference

Conference	Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval (EuroHCIR 2013 and SIGIR 2013)
Period	1/01/13 → …
Other	August 1 2013

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10.1.1.401.2660

Cite this

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title = "Fading away: Dilution and user behaviour",

abstract = "When faced with a poor set of document summaries on the first page of returned search results, a user may respond in various ways: by proceeding on to the next page of results; by entering another query; by switching to another service; or by abandoning their search. We analyse this aspect of searcher behaviour using a commercial search system, comparing a deliberately degraded system to the original one. Our results demonstrate that searchers naturally avoid selecting poor results as answers given the degraded system; however, the depth of the ranking that they view, their query reformulation rate, and the amount of time required to complete search tasks, are all remarkably unchanged.",

author = "Paul Thomas and Falk Scholer and Alistair Moffat",

year = "2013",

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language = "English",

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editor = "\{Max L. Wilson,Tony Russell-Rose,Birger Larsen,Preben Hansen,Kristi\}",

booktitle = "Proceedings of Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval 2013",

publisher = "EuroHCIR Workshop Proceedings",

edition = "Peer Reviewed",

note = "Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval (EuroHCIR 2013 and SIGIR 2013) ; Conference date: 01-01-2013",

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Thomas, P, Scholer, F & Moffat, A 2013, Fading away: Dilution and user behaviour. in MLWTR-RBLPHK (ed.), Proceedings of Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval 2013. Peer Reviewed edn, EuroHCIR Workshop Proceedings, unknown, pp. 3-6, Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval (EuroHCIR 2013 and SIGIR 2013), 1/01/13. https://doi.org/10.1.1.401.2660

Fading away: Dilution and user behaviour. / Thomas, Paul; Scholer, Falk; Moffat, Alistair.
Proceedings of Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval 2013. ed. / Max L. Wilson,Tony Russell-Rose,Birger Larsen,Preben Hansen,Kristi. Peer Reviewed. ed. unknown: EuroHCIR Workshop Proceedings, 2013. p. 3-6.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › peer-review

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AB - When faced with a poor set of document summaries on the first page of returned search results, a user may respond in various ways: by proceeding on to the next page of results; by entering another query; by switching to another service; or by abandoning their search. We analyse this aspect of searcher behaviour using a commercial search system, comparing a deliberately degraded system to the original one. Our results demonstrate that searchers naturally avoid selecting poor results as answers given the degraded system; however, the depth of the ranking that they view, their query reformulation rate, and the amount of time required to complete search tasks, are all remarkably unchanged.

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Fading away: Dilution and user behaviour

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