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Assessing the scenic route: measuring the value of search trails in web logs

Published: 19 July 2010 Publication History

Abstract

Search trails mined from browser or toolbar logs comprise queries and the post-query pages that users visit. Implicit endorsements from many trails can be useful for search result ranking, where the presence of a page on a trail increases its query relevance. Follow-ing a search trail requires user effort, yet little is known about the benefit that users obtain from this activity versus, say, sticking with the clicked search result or jumping directly to the destination page at the end of the trail. In this paper, we present a log-based study estimating the user value of trail following. We compare the relevance, topic coverage, topic diversity, novelty, and utility of full trails over that provided by sub-trails, trail origins (landing pages), and trail destinations (pages where trails end). Our findings demonstrate significant value to users in following trails, especially for certain query types. The findings have implications for the design of search systems, including trail recommendation systems that display trails on search result pages.

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        cover image ACM Conferences
        SIGIR '10: Proceedings of the 33rd international ACM SIGIR conference on Research and development in information retrieval
        July 2010
        944 pages
        ISBN:9781450301534
        DOI:10.1145/1835449
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        Published: 19 July 2010

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        1. log analysis
        2. search trails
        3. trail following

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        SIGIR '10 Paper Acceptance Rate 87 of 520 submissions, 17%;
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        • (2023)A Large-Scale Characterization of How Readers Browse WikipediaACM Transactions on the Web10.1145/358031817:2(1-22)Online publication date: 3-Apr-2023
        • (2023)Taking Search to TaskProceedings of the 2023 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval10.1145/3576840.3578288(1-13)Online publication date: 19-Mar-2023
        • (2023)From Rational Agent to Human with Bounded RationalityA Behavioral Economics Approach to Interactive Information Retrieval10.1007/978-3-031-23229-9_3(65-89)Online publication date: 18-Feb-2023
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        • (2022)Landscape of Automated Log Analysis: A Systematic Literature Review and Mapping StudyIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2022.315254910(21892-21913)Online publication date: 2022
        • (2021)Information Search Trail Recommendation Based on Markov Chain Model and Case-based ReasoningData and Information Management10.2478/dim-2020-00475:1(228-241)Online publication date: Jan-2021
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