Searching with continuous query exploration

• Authors: Sibel Adali;Mousumi Chatterjee;Carrie Clegg;Manish Dalwadi;Ruchi Dayal;Jim Zappen;Teresa Harrison
• Venue: dg.o '03 Proceedings of the 2003 annual national conference on Digital government research
• Year: 2003

We have observed three prevalent trends in interface designs for searching and browsing. One, search is considered as a one step process where the user, in order to locate items of interest, needs to modify the query if dissatisfied with the retrieved results. Two, browsing is usually implemented as a static process that does not relate to the previous searches. Three, adaptive interfaces for searching try to filter and push items to the user based on her past queries and interest. None of these approaches, independently, try to address the issue of searching and browsing as an integral whole which contains a set of interrelated queries with a complex need. A need to capture the users' past behavior preferences with the present motivations. We believe these processes are not inherently separable. They are integral and continuous. Therefore this research wants to capture the process of finding information through continuous information exploration and address the problem of managing interrelated queries for every individual from past as well as present behavior. Thus this system will enable its users to continuously explore and seek all the alternatives in a way such that the users get to explore these through a single interface, without having to move between screens or having to form search strategies to locate information while on one screen. The goal is to capture and adapt the experience for each individual, based on their need. It is then the duty of our explorer system to guide the users through the possibilities by either: (a) allowing the user to browse the objects, (b) allowing the user to specify new search constraints and assign ranking to the desirability of these constraints by observing user behavior, (c) requesting the user to provide feedback on the desirability of different options to refine the ranking process.