This paper reports selected findings from an ongoing series of studies analyzing large-scale data sets containing queries posed by Excite users, a major Internet search service.
Further research is discussed.
Introduction People are spending increasing amounts of time working with electronic information. Web searching services are now everyday tools for information seeking. However, many Web interactions are often frustrating and constrained. To support human information behaviours we are seeing the development of a new generation of Web tools, such as Web meta-search engines, to help users persist in electronic information seeking is needed to help people resolve their information problems. Our paper reports selected results from a large-scale and ongoing series of studies of Web users searching behaviour on the Excite search engine by a diverse range of information and computer scientists.