[Sigia-l] References for search quotes

[Steve Mulder]

I've found this to be true over the years. At Lycos we saw longer search
boxes (on various sites) successful at encouraging longer queries.

The reverse is also true. A small search box on financial sites
encourages appropriate behavior: entering symbols instead of company
names. Of course, good labeling helps too.

Steve Mulder


-----Original Message-----
From: sigia-l-admin at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-admin at asis.org] On Behalf
Of Donna M. Fritzsche
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 10:09 AM
To: Christina Wodtke; sigia-l at asis.org
Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] References for search quotes

>
>
>nice one mags...
>http://www.currybet.net/articles/day_in_the_life/5.shtml
>"I found that 36% of searches consisted of just one word and 35% of
searches
>used just two words. This is a vital point. Given the opportunity of
>searching over the whole of the BBC site, or indeed the whole of the
web,
>the user's understanding or trust of search technology is such that
they
>believe that a limited one or two word search term will achieve their
goals.
>When we consider that the quantity of documents indexed for websearch
is
>counted in the thousands of millions, this is a formidable task. "

  I wonder if its also an issue of presentation and suggestion.
What if the size of the average search box was actually large enough 
to handle several words well.
The size of the box suggests expected behavior.

Also, what if it actually was suggested to users to try more than two
words?
Has anyone tried this?  It doesn't look as clean, but it might drive 
user behavior.

Donna
------------
When replying, please *trim your post* as much as possible.
*Plain text, please; NO Attachments

Searchable list archive:   http://www.info-arch.org/lists/sigia-l/
________________________________________
Sigia-l mailing list -- post to: Sigia-l at asis.org
Changes to subscription: http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sigia-l
=3