Free-Text Search versus Complex Web Forms

Abstract

Abstract. We investigated the use of free-text queries as an alternative means for searching 'behind' web forms. We conducted a user study where we evaluated our prototype free-text interface in a travel planner scenario. Our results show that users prefer this free-text interface over the original web form and that they are about 9% faster on average at completing their search tasks.

Proactive natural language search engine

“…Such an interface is also highly desirable for end users to query XML data [9]. Recently, [16] conducted a user study on replacing complex query forms with free-text query interface. Our work largely departs from these efforts by using templates to capture user interests and parse user queries.…”