Exploiting browsing history for exploratory search

Abstract

With the advance of information technologies, web search has become a necessary activity for most Internet users. Although current search engines are powerful enough to respond required search results in seconds, information seekers may still feel arduous to digest them when conducting the exploratory search. In other words, when users are unfamiliar with the domain of their goals or unsure about the ways to achieve their goals, they may need to read numerous pages before fully understand what they are searching for. In this work, we propose to fully exploit the browsing history to help users clarify their thoughts and discover new insights during the process of exploratory search. Specifically, interactive user interfaces of two different modes, i.e., the timeline mode and the relevance mode, are devised to provide users a vivid impression of their browsing history. Hopefully, the feasibility and usability of web search for users can be further improved. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.