[Sigia-l] References for search quotes

[Karl Fast]

> 1. The average number of terms people enter into a search field is x 
> (I can't even remember the magic number)


For web search engines like Google & Altavista, the figure is about
2.3. A bit more than 2, but not 3, and typically less than 2.5.

This is according to various studies published in the research
literature. The first two are best since they are brief summaries
and distillations of previous papers.

Here are some references. You might be able to find them online. The
best bet is CiteSeer: http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/cs.


Dietmar Wolfram, Amanda Spink, Bernard J. Jansen, & Tefko Saracevic.
  Vox populi: The public searching of the web. Journal of the
  American Society for Information Science & Technology, 52(12):
  1073-1074 (2001)

Amanda Spink, Bernard J. Jansen, Dietmar Wolfram, & Tefko Saracevic.
  From E-Sex to E-Commerce: Web Search Changes. IEEE Computer 35(3):
  107-109 (2002)
  
Bernard J. Jansen, Amanda Spink, & Tefko Saracevic. Real life, real
  users, and real needs: a study and analysis of user queries on the
  web. Information Processing & Management. 36(2): 207-227 (2000)

  

--karl