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Search Engines with

Memory

Search Engines and Personalization May 31st, 2005

Tsvika Kuflik

The Department of Management Information Systems, The University of Haifatsvikak@is.haifa.ac.il

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Outline

Some background Motivation Search Engines with memory Concluding remarks

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Some Background

Web users are having problems searching for information– They do not know how to precisely define their

information needs and how to use advanced search engines features

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Some Background

Web users tend to perform short search sessions: – They pose a query, – Look at the first page (or two) of the results and

explore only a few Web sites listed on that page. – If they do not find relevant information, they may

reformulate the query and repeat the search process once or twice, and then abandon the search

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Some Background

Web users define short search queries – Research has shown that users define queries

having an average of 2.35 terms (in Jansen et al., 1998), 3.34 terms (in Spink et al., 1999) and 2.4 terms (in Spink et al., 2001).

– Recent research has shown that users queries Are getting longer – from 2.35 terms to 2.92 terms (Jansen et al, 2005)

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Some Background

Web users expect to get immediate results – Research has shown that on average, they explore

2.21 pages of results. Half of the users examine only one page of results, and three quarters examine only two pages or less

– Recent research has shown an increased number of users exploring more than one page of results – from 15% to 25% (Jansen et al, 2005)

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Some Background

Web users perform short sessions – Research has shown that on average they

reformulate a query 2.84 times in a search session and two-thirds of the users submit a single query

– Recent research has shown that users tend to pose more queries from 2.02 to 2.91 (Jansen et at, 2005)

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Some Background

Personalization was defined as an important research area, including users preferences and history (Callan, 2003, Smeaton, 2001)

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Motivation

These findings indicate how important it is for users to get the most relevant information already in the first few pages of the results of their search

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Motivation

The web may be easy to use, but using it well is not easy.

New ways are invented to take search one step farther and make it more effective in finding information, organizing it, and remembering it

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Motivation

Some time we search for the same exact information, that we searched previously, but we forgot the exact query

Some time we search for information we already looked at in the past, may be in a different context

Some time we know that we have seen a specific document and even kept it, but where…?

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Search Engines With Memory

Search Engines today try to provide better services to their users by allowing them to use better information accumulated during previous search sessions– Some time we repeat past searches– Some time we save a searched page but lose track

of it– We even do not know where things are stored on

our computers– We may want to keep notes about sites visited

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Search Engines With Memory

Availability of storage allows today’s search engines to store users’ data and provide “Memory” based services

For example let us take a look at: – A9

» Allows saving search history, comments and bookmarks and provides some supporting visualization

– Ask Jeeves» Allows saving (and searching) search history

– Google» Allows saving search history and emails of Google’s servers for

future use

– Yahoo» My WEB Allows saving (and searching) commented search

history

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Search Engines With Memory A9

A9 provides its users with:– A Diary so user can take notes on any web page, and

reference them on any future visit to that page– Bookmarks (Favorites), which are stored on A9 servers so

they can be accessed from any computer. Search results can be dragged and dropped to the Bookmarks column or even to the bookmarks button (if the column is closed)

– History of searches and search results

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Search Engines With Memory A9

A9 personalizes search experience by remembering searches and giving the user easy access to search history in several ways:– Each web search result indicates whether it’s new [ New ] or

has previously been clicked on [ Clicked 2 weeks ago ]. – Every search performed on A9 is stored in the History column

and organized by time. The user can switch between previous searches and the sites visited

– The history column gives search results of the users own history followed by a list of the entire history (as well as from bookmarks and diary…).

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Search Engines With Memory A9

A9 History What is included in the History?

– All searches using A9.com are stored (arranged at a chronological order) on A9 servers and shown (only to the user) at any time from any computer

What can the history e used for? – Clicking on a link performs the search again. Clicking on a

site goes to that site, history is used to a site was last visited ([ Clicked 1 month ago ]) or to show when a search result is new ([ New ])

History can me managed – History items can be cleared– History function can be turned on and off

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Search Engines With Memory My Jeeves

MyJeeves History allows its users– track searches over time– organize them into folders – save the visited sites

MyJeeves allows saving by clicking the "Save" link to the right of any web or image search result you want to save. It's that easy to start building your personal Web.

My Jeeves allows saving both search results and queries and re-running queries

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Search Engines With Memory My Jeeves

In My Jeeves, intentionally, nothing is saved unless explicitly selected.

No need to register to start saving things at Ask Jeeves. But this also means you'll lose data, if you delete the cookie on your computer or it is somehow otherwise corrupted. So if you really get into the search history feature, you'd better make an account.

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Search Engines With Memory Google

Google’s “My Search History” lets users easily view and manage your search history from any computer. This feature of Google web search enables you to find information you thought you lost. And over time, you'll see an increasing number of relevance indicators in your search results that help you find the information you want. My Search History offers you: – Powerful search options

Search your web search history, including full text search of all the pages you found with Google.

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Search Engines With Memory Google

– Relevant history while you searchGet more useful information in your web search results, like the last time you saw a page, how often you've seen it, and more.

– Intuitive browsingUse the calendar to quickly navigate to any day of your search history, and see similar searches you've done via automatic related history detection.

– Manage your search historyLearn how often you've done web searches on a given day, and even delete individual searches and results clicks.

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Search Engines With Memory Google

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Search Engines With Memory Yahoo

Yahoo provides history of sites visited Results can be saved to specific folders and annotated Historical search results and saved sites can searched

to re-find previously found information Turn on My Search History to quickly access past

searches and visited results

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Brief Comparison

Feature A9 Ask Google Yahoo

AutoSave

Yes No Yes No

Pause No n/a Yes n/a

HistorySearch

Yes Yes Yes Yes

DateSort

Yes Yes Yes Yes

TermSort

No Yes No Yes

SiteSort

Yes No No Yes

Notes Yes Yes No Yes

Tags No Yes No No

Folders No Yes No Yes

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Brief Comparison

Auto Save: Means that your searches are automatically saved.

Pause: If searches are automatically saved, this means that you can temporarily pause saving. If pause isn't offered, you have to sign-out of the system to prevent saving.

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Brief Comparison

History Search: Means that you can do a search just within the things you've searched for previously. For example, if you knew you looked for something related to "cars" but didn't know exactly how you searched, you could search for "cars" and find all the queries containing that word. In some cases, a history search may also search against the content of the web page or notes and annotations you've made.

Date Sort: Means that you can sort your history by date in some manner. The degree and flexibility of which may vary.

Term Sort: Means that you can sort your search history by term (the title of the search), in alphabetical or reverse-alphabetical order.

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Brief Comparison

Site Sort: Means that you view your search history by seeing it listed in order of sites you clicked on.

Notes: Means that you can annotate things you've found in your search history with comments. At A9, these notes aren't stored in your search history, however, annotation of sites you've visited can be done using the diary feature, if you use the A9 toolbar.

Tags: Means that you can annotate items in your search history into categories by tagging them with keywords.

Folders: Means that you can organize your search history into folders, such as if you want to group certain queries into a particular subject heading.

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Concluding remarks

“Memory” is additional service now offered by search engines– It allows to “remember” search queries– It allows to remember search results– It allows to add comments and notes to saved search results

and queries– It allows re-submission of queries and re-visiting search results– It is even more helpful when combined with proper visualization

However, like any aspect of personalization, it brings with it the issues of:– Privacy– Security– The need to register and to be identified

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Concluding remarks

Nowadays, search engines differ in the specific services they provide:– A9, Google, and Yahoo ask for registration, Ask Jeeves does not– A9, Google and Yahoo save history automatically, Ask Jeeves

does not– Yahoo allows turning off the history feature– A9, Google provides some relevant visualization aspects

“Memory” as a service provided by search engines just started to appear

It has it’s benefits and drawbacks, as other personalization services

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References

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

Jansen B., Spink A. & Saracevic T. (2000). Real life, real users and real needs: a study and analysis of user queries on the Web. Information Processing and Management, Vol. 36, 207-227.

Spink A., Graisdorf, H. & Bateman J. (1998). From highly relevant to not relevant: examining different regions of relevancy. Information Processing and Management, Vol. 34(5), 599-621.

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

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

Jansen B. Spink A. & Pedersen J. (2005). A Temporal Comparison of AltaVista Web Searching. Information Processing and Management (In Press)

Callan, J., & Smeaton, A. (2003). Personalisation and recommender systems in digital libraries. Joint NSF_EU_DELOS working group report. Joint NSF-EU DELOS Working Group Report. Retrieved 1.1.02 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ercim.org/publication/ws-proceedings/Delos-NSF/Personalisation.pdf.

Smeaton, A. & Callan, J. Joint DELOS-NSF Workshop on Personalisation and Recommender Systems in Digital Libraries SIGIR Forum Volume 35 ,  Issue 1   Pages: 7 – 11

Marti A. Hearst & Chandu Karadi, 1997, http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~hearst/papers/cac-sigir97/sigir97.html  

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References

http://a9.com/-/company/whatsCool.jsp Sullivan D., Ask Jeeves Personal Search Goes Live,

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/040921-061929 Sullivan D., Comparing Search History Features

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/050421-070616 Searchenginewatch blog, http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/