Searchers' assessments of task complexity for web searching

David J. Bell; Ian Ruthven

doi:10.1007/978-3-540-24752-4_5

Searchers' assessments of task complexity for web searching

David J. Bell, Ian Ruthven

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution book

102 Citations (Scopus)

80 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The complexity of search tasks has been shown to be an important factor in searchers' ability to find relevant information and their satisfaction with the performance of search engines. In user evaluations of search engines an understanding of how task complexity affects search behaviour is important to properly understand the results of an evaluation. In this paper we examine the issue of search task complexity for the purposes of evaluation. In particular we concentrate on the searchers' ability to recognise the internal complexity of search tasks, how complexity is affected by task design, and how complexity affects the success of searching.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Advances in information retrieval
Subtitle of host publication	proceedings of the 26th european conference in information retrieval (ECIR 2004)
Editors	S McDonald, J. Tait
Place of Publication	Berlin-Heidelberg
Publisher	Springer-Verlag
Pages	57-71
Number of pages	14
ISBN (Electronic)	978-3-540-24752-4
ISBN (Print)	3540213821, 978-3-540-21382-6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-24752-4_5
Publication status	Published - 2004
Event	26th European Conference on Infromation Retrieval (ECIR 2004) - Sunderland, United Kingdom Duration: 5 Apr 2004 → 7 Apr 2004

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Publisher	Springer-Verlag
Volume	2997
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743

Conference

Conference	26th European Conference on Infromation Retrieval (ECIR 2004)
Country/Territory	United Kingdom
City	Sunderland
Period	5/04/04 → 7/04/04

Keywords

searching
web searching
search engines
information retrieval

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-540-24752-4_5

strathprints001917Accepted author manuscript, 268 KB

102 Citations
1 Conference contribution book

Searchers' assessments of task complexity for web searching
Bell, D. J. & Ruthven, I., 2004, Advances in information retrieval: proceedings of the 26th european conference in information retrieval (ECIR 2004). McDonald, S. & Tait, J. (eds.). Berlin-Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, p. 57-71 14 p. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; vol. 2997).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution book

Open Access
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102 Citations (Scopus)

80 Downloads (Pure)

Cite this

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title = "Searchers' assessments of task complexity for web searching",

abstract = "The complexity of search tasks has been shown to be an important factor in searchers' ability to find relevant information and their satisfaction with the performance of search engines. In user evaluations of search engines an understanding of how task complexity affects search behaviour is important to properly understand the results of an evaluation. In this paper we examine the issue of search task complexity for the purposes of evaluation. In particular we concentrate on the searchers' ability to recognise the internal complexity of search tasks, how complexity is affected by task design, and how complexity affects the success of searching.",

keywords = "searching, web searching, search engines, information retrieval",

author = "Bell, {David J.} and Ian Ruthven",

note = "Paper published in: Advances in Information Retrieval: Proceedings of the 26th European Conference in Information Retrieval (ECIR 2004), Springer-Verlag, ISBN: 3540213821. (This is a variant record); 26th European Conference on Infromation Retrieval (ECIR 2004) ; Conference date: 05-04-2004 Through 07-04-2004",

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language = "English",

isbn = "3540213821",

series = "Lecture Notes in Computer Science",

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Bell, DJ & Ruthven, I 2004, Searchers' assessments of task complexity for web searching. in S McDonald & J Tait (eds), Advances in information retrieval: proceedings of the 26th european conference in information retrieval (ECIR 2004). Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 2997, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg, pp. 57-71, 26th European Conference on Infromation Retrieval (ECIR 2004), Sunderland, United Kingdom, 5/04/04. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-24752-4_5

Searchers' assessments of task complexity for web searching. / Bell, David J.; Ruthven, Ian.
Advances in information retrieval: proceedings of the 26th european conference in information retrieval (ECIR 2004). ed. / S McDonald; J. Tait. Berlin-Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 2004. p. 57-71 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Vol. 2997).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution book

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T1 - Searchers' assessments of task complexity for web searching

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N2 - The complexity of search tasks has been shown to be an important factor in searchers' ability to find relevant information and their satisfaction with the performance of search engines. In user evaluations of search engines an understanding of how task complexity affects search behaviour is important to properly understand the results of an evaluation. In this paper we examine the issue of search task complexity for the purposes of evaluation. In particular we concentrate on the searchers' ability to recognise the internal complexity of search tasks, how complexity is affected by task design, and how complexity affects the success of searching.

AB - The complexity of search tasks has been shown to be an important factor in searchers' ability to find relevant information and their satisfaction with the performance of search engines. In user evaluations of search engines an understanding of how task complexity affects search behaviour is important to properly understand the results of an evaluation. In this paper we examine the issue of search task complexity for the purposes of evaluation. In particular we concentrate on the searchers' ability to recognise the internal complexity of search tasks, how complexity is affected by task design, and how complexity affects the success of searching.

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KW - search engines

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T2 - 26th European Conference on Infromation Retrieval (ECIR 2004)

Y2 - 5 April 2004 through 7 April 2004

ER -

Searchers' assessments of task complexity for web searching

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Research output

Searchers' assessments of task complexity for web searching

Cite this