Compares and contrasts results from two previous studies of Excite queries' data sets and examines how public Web searching changed during that period. Results show shorter queries; fewer queries per user; viewing fewer pages of results per query; an increase in Boolean operators; and more commercial searching topics. (LRW)

Reports results from a survey that explored users' information searching behavior on the EXCITE Web search engine over time on the same or evolving topic. Discusses search topics, intended query terms, search frequency, demographic data, and implications for the design of Web search services. A copy of the survey is appended. (Author/LRW)

This paper reports on a transaction log analysis of 51,473 queries from 18,113 users of Excite, a major World Wide Web search engine. Approximately 2,500 of these queries were from the use of relevance feedback. Given the high level of research activity and historical success of relevance feedback in assisting users in locating relevant…

Describes a study that analyzed transaction logs of users of Excite, an Internet search service. Highlights include data on sessions (changes in queries, number of pages viewed, and relevance feedback), queries (number of search terms and the use of logic and modifiers), and terms (rank/frequency distribution); user characteristics; and failure…

Examines the use of query reformulation and particularly the use of relevance feedback by users of the Excite Web search engine. Discusses results that show limited use of query reformulation and relevance feedback; identifies the most common pattern of searching; and discusses implications for Web search system design. (Contains 16 references.)…

End user searching on the Web has become the primary method of locating images for many people. This study investigates the nature of Web image queries by attempting to map them to known image classification schemes. In this study, approximately 100,000 image queries from a major Web search engine were collected in 1997, 1999, and 2001. A…

Studies show that the majority of Web searchers enter extremely simple queries, so a reasonable system design approach would be to build search engines to compensate for this user characteristic. One hundred representative queries were selected from the transaction log of a major Web search service. These 100 queries were then modified using the…

This research begins to refine a cognitive model of interactive information seeking for use in the design of information retrieval (IR) systems. The research reported in this paper critically examines several interactive information seeking and retrieval models that have emerged over the last two decades. Building primarily on the stratified…

Reviews published studies of Web searching. Proposes a framework for future studies that will facilitate comparison of results. Presents advantages of such a framework, and discusses the implications for the design of Web information retrieval systems studies. Compares/contrasts the searching characteristics of Web users with users of traditional…