Path Following in Social Web Search

Abstract

Abstract. Many organisms, human and otherwise, engage in path following in physical environments across a wide variety of contexts. Inspired by evidence that spatial search and information search share cognitive underpinnings, we explored whether path information could also be useful in a Web search context. We developed a prototype interface for presenting a user with the "search path" (sequence of clicks and queries) of another user, and ran a user study in which participants performed a series of search tasks while having access to search path information. Results suggest that path information can be a useful search aid, but that better path representations are needed. This application highlights the benefits of a cognitive science-based search perspective for the design of Web search systems and the need for further work on aggregating and presenting search trajectories in a Web search context.