www.sharon-it.com1 search engine usability taly sharon [email protected] [email protected]
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www.sharon-it.com1
Search Engine Usability
Taly Sharonwww.sharon-it.com
[email protected]@alum.mit.edu
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Agenda
• Search Engines Issues• Search Engines UI Paradigms
– Including Ajax, query formulation and results
• Demonstration links (see www.sharon-it.com/new.html)
• References
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Search Engines Issues• How to phrase query?• How to interpret query?• How to present results?
• Additional Problem: Web Users (see next)!
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Web Users? Make poor queries
– short (3.3 terms average)– imprecise terms– sub-optimal syntax (80%
without operators)– low effort
Wide variance on– Needs– Expectations– Knowledge– Bandwidth (and platforms)
Specific behavior– 85% look over one result
screen only– 78% of queries not
modified
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Search Engines UI Paradigms
Simple Overloaded Keywords Natural (NLP)User Control Automatic
Static Dynamic (Ajax)Textual Graphical
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Simple OverloadedGoogle: Lean and Mean?
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Yahoo!
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search.Yahoo.com
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Google in 1998 – looking up at Yahoo?!
Source: Internet archive’s Wayback machine www.archive.org
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Google Personalized
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Advanced
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MSN Search Builder
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Windows?
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Search Engines UI Paradigms
Simple Overloaded Keywords Natural (NLP)User Control Automatic
Static Dynamic (Ajax)Textual Graphical
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Keywords Natural (NLP)• Problem: How to formulate query?• Solution 1: use Refine, Google
Suggest• Solution 2: use questions and
answers engines - natural language processing (NLP)
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Excite
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Google Suggest• As you type – you get query
suggestions and number of results per query.
• labs.google.com/suggest
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Q&A Engines (Natural Language)
• General SEs Q&A:– Google– Yahoo– MSN
• Q&A Engines:– Ask– Brainboost– Lexxe
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Google, MSN, Yahoo
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Ask
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BrainBoost
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Lexxe
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)Dis(Advantages• Advantages:
– quick and dirty answer.
• Disadvantages:– often fail– Inaccurate
• Who murdered JFK “Why the Fed Murdered JFK” (brainboost)
• Who is the prime minister of Israel? Ariel Sharon (May 2006)
– non-verified sources– slow
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Search Engines UI Paradigms
Simple Overloaded Keywords Natural (NLP)User Control Automatic
Static Dynamic (Ajax)Textual Graphical
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Meta Search Engine (MSE)
MetaCrawler
Yahoo Web Crawler Open Text Lycos InfoSeek Inktomi Galaxy Excite
Google · Yahoo · Ask About · LookSmart · OvertureFindWhat
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Vivisimo: link: Not supported?
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Problems of MSEs• Limited support of advanced search
options.• Limited number (~10) of results from
each search engine.• Sponsored results from the SEs are
not highlighted.
? Does the average user know this?
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Query Results• Examples of User Interface in Query
Results’ pages :– Google– Clusty/Vivisimo– A9– Exalead– KartOO (see Graphical)
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Clusty
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Search Engines UI Paradigms
Simple Overloaded Keywords Natural (NLP)User Control Automatic
Static Dynamic (Ajax)Textual Graphical
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Ajax
Asynchronous JavaScript and XML
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Ajax
• Asynchronous JavaScript and XML • A Web 2.0 technology• Fast (real-time) interactive page
updates - directly from the database• Ajax applications• Try it yourself - Google Web Toolkit
(GWT)
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Example Ajax Applications• Google Maps/Local (Yahoo, A9)• Housing Maps• Google Suggest• Windows live• Yahoo! Instant Search • GMail• And many more..
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HousingMaps• Mash-up of Google maps and Craigs
list rentals• Mash-up are websites that are built
from pieces of other websites• http://www.housingmaps.com/
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Ajax Pros/Cons• Pros
– Interactivity!• Cons
– might easily break the expected behavior of the browser's back button
– difficult for a user to bookmark a particular state of the application
– users might experience delay in the interface of the web application
– requires users to have JavaScript (or ActiveX) enabled in their browsers
– a challenge for developers interested in adhering to WAI accessibility guidelines.
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Yahoo! Instant• Example of slow reaction• Good implementation of “back”• instant.search.yahoo.com
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AlltheWeb LiveSearch• Yahoo’s AlltheWeb now has a new
Livesearch feature. • It takes the Google Suggest approach
a step further. • You will instantly see the results to
the right side.
• http://livesearch.alltheweb.com/?ek=1
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Search Engines UI Paradigms
Simple Overloaded Keywords Natural (NLP)User Control Automatic
Static Dynamic (Ajax)Textual Graphical
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Visual/Graphical Search Engines
• KartOO www.kartOO.com • TouchGraph
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Kartoo Legend
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Examples
1. Query: “Taly Sharon”– Main webpage, www.sharon-it.com – co-authors (selker, lieberman, frank,
lockerd, etc.)– Conferences (IFLA, CHI, SigGraph, etc.)– Related keywords (mostly from
research/papers)– Other related: GoogleGuide.com
2. Query: www.sharon-it.com (website)
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)Dis(Advantages• Advantages:
– very visual, easy to detect trends.– Useful to find connections
• Disadvantages:– Requires training– Easy disorientation
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Demonstration Links• Google www.google.com• Yahoo www.yahoo.com• Yahoo Search Interface search.yahoo.com• Google 1998 (from Internet Archive)
http://web.archive.org/web/19981111183552/http://google.stanford.edu/• Yahoo Advanced search.yahoo.com/web/advanced?ei=UTF-8• Google Personalized www.google.com/ig• MSN Search Builder search.msn.co.il• Excite www.excite.com• Google Suggest labs.google.com/suggest • Ask www.ask.com• Brainboost www.brainboost.com• Lexxe www.lexxe.com• Dogpile www.dogpile.com• Vivisimo www.vivisimo.com• Clusty www.clusty.com• A9 www.a9.com• Exalead www.exalead.com • Google Maps maps.google.com • Housing Maps www.housingmaps.com• A9 maps maps.a9.com • Windows live www.live.com • Yahoo Instant instant.search.yahoo.com• Alltheweb Livesearch livesearch.alltheweb.com/?ek=1• Kartoo www.kartoo.com
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References• Ajax – wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/AJAX• http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/inde
x.php?p=27• http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/downlo
ads/2006AnalystDay.pdf• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/490
0742.stm• http://www.dsi.uniroma1.it/~ale//BICI/IR/Sli
des/bertinoro8.pdf