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Search Engine Usability

Search Engine Usability. Taly Sharon www.sharon-it.com. taly@sharon-it.com sharont@alum.mit.edu. 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 Engine Usability

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  1. Search Engine Usability Taly Sharon www.sharon-it.com taly@sharon-it.com sharont@alum.mit.edu www.sharon-it.com

  2. Agenda • Search Engines Issues • Search Engines UI Paradigms • Including Ajax, query formulation and results • Demonstration links (see www.sharon-it.com/new.html) • References www.sharon-it.com

  3. Search Engines Issues • How to phrase query? • How to interpret query? • How to present results? • Additional Problem: Web Users (see next)! www.sharon-it.com

  4. 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 resultscreen only 78% of queries notmodified Web Users? www.sharon-it.com

  5. Search Engines UI Paradigms Simple  Overloaded Keywords  Natural (NLP) User Control  Automatic Static  Dynamic (Ajax) Textual  Graphical www.sharon-it.com

  6. Simple  Overloaded Google: Lean and Mean? www.sharon-it.com

  7. Yahoo! www.sharon-it.com

  8. search.Yahoo.com www.sharon-it.com

  9. Google in 1998 – looking up at Yahoo!? Source: Internet archive’s Wayback machine www.archive.org www.sharon-it.com

  10. Google Personalized www.sharon-it.com

  11. Advanced www.sharon-it.com

  12. MSN Search Builder www.sharon-it.com

  13. Search Engines UI Paradigms Simple  Overloaded Keywords  Natural (NLP) User Control  Automatic Static  Dynamic (Ajax) Textual  Graphical www.sharon-it.com

  14. 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) www.sharon-it.com

  15. Excite www.sharon-it.com

  16. Google Suggest • As you type – you get query suggestions and number of results per query. • labs.google.com/suggest www.sharon-it.com

  17. Q&A Engines (Natural Language) • General SEs Q&A: • Google • Yahoo • MSN • Q&A Engines: • Ask • Brainboost • Lexxe www.sharon-it.com

  18. (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 www.sharon-it.com

  19. Search Engines UI Paradigms Simple  Overloaded Keywords  Natural (NLP) User Control  Automatic Static  Dynamic (Ajax) Textual  Graphical www.sharon-it.com

  20. Meta Search Engine (MSE) Google · Yahoo · Ask About ·LookSmart· OvertureFindWhat MetaCrawler Yahoo Web Crawler Open Text Lycos InfoSeek Inktomi Galaxy Excite www.sharon-it.com

  21. www.sharon-it.com

  22. Vivisimo: link: Not supported? www.sharon-it.com

  23. 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? www.sharon-it.com

  24. Query Results • Examples of User Interface in Query Results’ pages : • Google • Clusty/Vivisimo • A9 • Exalead • KartOO (see Graphical) www.sharon-it.com

  25. www.sharon-it.com

  26. Clusty www.sharon-it.com

  27. www.sharon-it.com

  28. www.sharon-it.com

  29. www.sharon-it.com

  30. Search Engines UI Paradigms Simple  Overloaded Keywords  Natural (NLP) User Control  Automatic Static  Dynamic (Ajax) Textual  Graphical www.sharon-it.com

  31. Ajax Asynchronous JavaScript and XML www.sharon-it.com

  32. 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) www.sharon-it.com

  33. Example Ajax Applications • Google Maps/Local (Yahoo, A9) • Housing Maps • Google Suggest • Windows live • Yahoo! Instant Search • GMail • And many more.. www.sharon-it.com

  34. 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/ www.sharon-it.com

  35. 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. www.sharon-it.com

  36. Yahoo! Instant • Example of slow reaction • Good implementation of “back” • instant.search.yahoo.com www.sharon-it.com

  37. 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 www.sharon-it.com

  38. Search Engines UI Paradigms Simple  Overloaded Keywords  Natural (NLP) User Control  Automatic Static  Dynamic (Ajax) Textual  Graphical www.sharon-it.com

  39. Visual/Graphical Search Engines • KartOO www.kartOO.com • TouchGraph www.sharon-it.com

  40. Examples • 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 • Query: www.sharon-it.com (website) www.sharon-it.com

  41. www.sharon-it.com

  42. www.sharon-it.com

  43. (Dis)Advantages • Advantages: • very visual, easy to detect trends. • Useful to find connections • Disadvantages: • Requires training • Easy disorientation www.sharon-it.com

  44. 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 www.sharon-it.com

  45. References • Ajax – wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJAX • http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/index.php?p=27 • http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/downloads/2006AnalystDay.pdf • http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4900742.stm • http://www.dsi.uniroma1.it/~ale//BICI/IR/Slides/bertinoro8.pdf www.sharon-it.com

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