Searching the intranet: Corporate users and their queries

Stenmark, Dick Searching the intranet: Corporate users and their queries., 2005 . In 68th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST), Charlotte (US), 28 October - 2 November 2005. [Conference paper]

[thumbnail of Stenmark_Searching.pdf]
Preview
PDF
Stenmark_Searching.pdf

Download (280kB) | Preview

English abstract

By examining the log files from a corporate intranet search engine, we have analysed the actual web searching behaviour of real users in a real business environment. While building on previous research on public search engines, we apply an alternative session definition that we argue is more appropriate. Our results regarding session length, query construction and result page viewing confirm some of the findings from similar studies carried out on public search engines but further our understanding of web searching by presenting details on corporate users’ activities. In particular, we suggest that search sessions are shorter than previously suggested, search queries have fewer terms than observed for public search engines, and number of examined result pages is smaller than reported in other research. More research on how corporate intranet users search for information is needed.

Item type: Conference paper
Keywords: intranets ; employee information seeking ; transaction log analysis
Subjects: B. Information use and sociology of information > BA. Use and impact of information.
C. Users, literacy and reading. > CB. User studies.
H. Information sources, supports, channels. > HR. Portals.
L. Information technology and library technology > LS. Search engines.
Depositing user: Norm Medeiros
Date deposited: 08 Feb 2006
Last modified: 02 Oct 2014 12:02
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/7009

References

Catledge, L. and Pitkow, J. (1995). Characterizing browser strategies in the world-wide web. Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, 26(6), 1065-1073.

Choo, C. W., Detlor, B., and Turnbull, D. (2000). Web Work: Information Seeking and Knowledge Work on the World Wide Web. Dortrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Fagin, R., Kumar, R., McCurley, K., Novak, J., Sivakumar, D., Tomlin, J. and Williamson, D. (2003). Searching the Corporate Web. In Proceedings of WWW2003, Budapest, Hungary, 366-375.

Gerstner, J. (2002). Intranets mean Business. Communication World, 19(2), 14-17.

Göker, A. and He, D. (2000). Analysing Web Search Logs to Determine Session Boundaries for User-Oriented Learning. In Proceedings of Adaptive Hypermedia and Adaptive Web-based Systems, (pp. 319-322). Trento, Italy.

Han, S., Göker, A. and He, D. (2001). Web user search pattern analysis for modeling query topic changes. In Proceedings of User modelling for context-aware applications, a workshop at the 8th International Conference on User Modeling, Sonthofen, Germany, July 13-17.

Hawking, D., Bailey, P. and Craswell, N. (2000). An intranet reality check for TREC ad hoc (Technical report: CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences).

He, D. and Göker, A. (2002). Combining evidence for automatic web session identification. Information Processing and Management, 38, 727-742.

Hölscher, C. (1998). How Internet experts search for information on the Web. In Proceedings of WebNet ’98, Orlando, FL.

Jansen, B. and Pooch, U. (2001). A review of web searching studies and a framework for future research. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 52(3), 235-246.

Jansen, B., Spink, A., Bateman, J. and Saracevic, T. (1998). Real life information retrieval: A study of user queries on the web. ACM SIGIR Forum, 32(1), 5-17.

Jansen, B. and Spink, A. (2003). An Analysis of Web Documents Retrieved and Viewed. In Proceedings of ICIC´03, Las Vegas, NE, 65-69.

Jansen, B., Spink, A., and Saracevic, T. (2000). Real life, Real users, and Real needs: A study and analysis of user queries on the web. Information Processing and management, 36, 207-227.

Liu, J. and Zhang, S. (2004). Characterizing web user regularities with information foraging agents. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 16(5), 566-584.

Silverstein, C., Henzinger, M., Marais, H. and Moricz, M. (1999). Analysis of a very large web search engine query log. ACM SIGIR Forum, 33(1), 6-12.

Spink, A., Bateman, J. and Jansen, B. (1999). Searching the Web: Survey of EXCITE users. Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy, 9(2), 117-128.

Spink, A., Wolfram, D., Jansen, B. and Saracevic, T. (2001). Searching the web: The public and their queries. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 52(3), 226-234.

Spink, A., Ozmutlu, S., Ozmutlu, H. and Jansen, B. (2002). U.S. versus European Web Searching Trends. ACM SIGIR Forum, 36(2), 32-38.

Stenmark, D. (2005a). Query expansion on a corporate intranet: Using LSI to increase relative precision in explorative search. In Proceedings of HICSS-38, Big Island, HI., January 3-6.

Stenmark, D. (2005b). One week with a corporate search engine: A time-based analysis of intranet information seeking. In Proceedings of AMCIS, Omaha, NE, August 11-14.


Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item