“WHERE’D IT GO?”
Jaime Teevan Microsoft Research
“WHERE’D IT GO?”
Study
how people re-find
Difficulties people actually encountered Collected via a Web search
Look
at how people:
Described what they were looking for Answered “Where’d it go?” Coordinated use with other people
Explore
ramifications for system design
“WHERE’D IT GO?”
Example
observation:
I remember when I first joined these forums! There were little “Did you know” facts about Star Wars at the front page, but they were replaced with movie quotes! Why did they disappear?
location, time Wants an explanation as an answer Facts removed because seeker’s needs not coordinated with others
Describes frustration,
UNDERSTANDING RE-FINDING
Re-finding
common on the Web
60%-80% of Web page visits are re-visits
[Tauscher & Greenberg 1997, Cockburn et al. 2002] [Teevan et al. 2007]
40% of search queries involve re-finding
Commonly
a problem on the Web re-finding
“Not being able to return to a visited page”
[GVU 1998]
Support for
Search engines, bookmarks, history
RE-FINDING IN A DYNAMIC WEB
Web
content changes a lot is harder when things change
[Fetterly et al. 2003, Obendorf et al. 2007]
Re-finding
Bookmarks break [Hupp & Miller 2007] Untrusted repository [Whittaker & Hirshberg 2001] Even when not impossible, can make it harder
STUDYING RE-FINDING IS HARD
Log
analysis
Pro: Naturalistic behavior Con: No intent
Controlled
studies
Need to create re-finding situations
[Bruce, Jones & Dumais 2004] [Capra & Pérez-Quiñones 2005]
Can
we get insight into real world difficulties people encounter?
APPROACH: ANALYZE WEB PAGES
Gather
Web pages indicative of troubles
Collected via a Web search Query: “Where’d it go?”
Analyze and
code pages
APPROACH: ANALYZE WEB PAGES
Gather
Web pages indicative of troubles
Collected via a Web search Query: “Where’d it go?”
Other
studies of Web content
Robotic pets [Friedman et al. 2003] Injury recovery [Preece 1998] Personal data [Good & Krekelberg 2003]
PAGES CONTAINING “WHERE’D IT GO?”
Message boards
Web logs (blogs) Redirect pages
Articles
FAQs Other
OVERVIEW OF DATA COLLECTED
Information Target Format
404/Redirect
Web log Article FAQ/Help
Total
17
21 23 12
Web
17
18 7 7
Digital Other Rhetorical Response
0
3 12 4
0
0 4 1
17
2 17 12
0
3 2 0
Message Board
Other
165
20
106
19
54
1
5
0
14
7
113
1
Total
258
174
74
10
69
119
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
Analyzed data to see how people:
Described what
they were looking for Answered “Where’d it go?” Coordinated use with other people
Information Target Web Digital Other
17 18 7 7 106 19 174 0 3 12 4 54 1 74 0 0 4 1 5 0 10
Format
404/Redirect Web log Article FAQ/Help Message Board Other Total
Total
17 21 23 12 165 20 258
Rhetorical
17 2 17 12 14 7 69
Response
0 3 2 0 113 1 119
DESCRIBING THE MISSING INFO
Expressions of
frustration
Ah *pulls out masses of hair* Where'd it go?!?! Blame self: I think I am going crazy.
Shared context
I noticed it was missing too!
Path
important is relative
Ok, where’s the link? Provide info on the demise of .. the .. newspaper.
Time
Recently….
ANSWERING “WHERE’D IT GO?”
Explanations
I’ve removed the pages I used to have here. Maybe Eric didn’t pay his .. hosting fee? If Spike doesn’t like .. a post, he’ll take it out.
I found it, or something better…
Work-arounds
Resolutions
Most often provided by the changer I moved it to the bug reports forum.
COORDINATING MULTIPLE USERS
People
had different intentions
I think they got removed because there were only about three of them and they got old fast
Did
not want others to see information
I was hoping nobody saw it, oops. I got taken in by that Metallica spoof going around the net. Found out it was a parody and deleted it. Copyright issues
Wanted
others to see information
DESIGN IMPLICATIONS
Important
to archive Web content Described the missing information
Key into archive by location, relative time
Answered “Where’d
it go?”
Explanations valuable if archive impossible Answers most useful where change occurred
Coordinated
use with other people
Personalization Awareness of what others see
CONCLUSIONS
Studied
how people re-find on the Web
Difficulties people actually encountered Collected via a Web search
Looked
at how people:
Described what they were looking for Answered “Where’d it go?” Coordinated use with other people
Explored
ramifications for system design
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Understand re-finding
behavior better
Log analysis of re-visitation Analysis of content changes Additional studies of re-finding behavior
Support re-finding
better
Caching systems
Re:Search Engine
Highlighting changes
THANK YOU!
Jaime Teevan, MSR