This study describes searching behavior of experienced online searchers. It focuses on the interaction process and constructs a pattern model of searching behavior. The description is based on observing five experienced online searchers doing their regular, job-related searches, and on analyzing 10 to 13 searches conducted by each of them. The searchers were observed systematically one after the other, and they verbalized their thought processes.
Operationalist searchers aim at optimal strategies to achieve precise retrieval.
Conceptualist searchers analyze a request by fitting it into a faceted structure. They first enter the facet that represents the most important aspect of the request. Their search is then centered on retrieving subsets from this primary set by introducing the additional facets. In contrast to the operationalists, they are mainly concerned with recall and during the interaction they preserve the faceted structure, but may change the specific meaning of the request. The identification of patterns of searching has implications for practical work and research in online searching.