Understanding the specificity of web search queries
CHI '13 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
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This study investigated a relatively unexamined query type, queries composed of URLs. The extent, variation, and user click-through behavior was examined to determine the intent behind URL queries. The study made use of a search log from which URL queries were identified and selected for both qualitative and quantitative analyses. It was found that URL queries accounted for ∼17% of the sample. There were statistically significant differences between URL queries and non-URL queries in the following attributes: mean query length; mean number of tokens per query; and mean number of clicks per query. Users issuing such queries clicked on fewer result list items higher up the ranking compared to non-URL queries. Classification indicated that nearly 86% of queries were navigational in intent with informational and transactional queries representing about 7% of URL queries each. This is in contrast to past research that suggested that URL queries were 100% navigational. The conclusions of this study are that URL queries are relatively common and that simply returning the page that matches a user's URL is not an optimal strategy. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.