Supervisors:
Prof. Eero Vainikko (Tartu Ülikool),
Dr. Ulrich Norbisrath (Tartu Ülikool),
Prof. Dirk Lewandowski (Hamburg University of Applied Sciences)
Opponents:
Prof. René Schneider (Haute Ecole de Gestion Geneva, Ðveits),
Prof. Dr. Joachim Griesbaum (Stiftung Universität Hildesheim, Saksamaa)
Summary:
Search engines have become the means for searching information on the Internet. Along with the increasing popularity of these search tools, the areas of their application have grown from simple look-up to rather complex information needs. Also the academic interest in search has started to shift from analyzing simple query and response patterns to examining more sophisticated activities covering longer time spans. Current search tools do not support those activities as well as they do in the case of simple look-up tasks. Especially the support for aggregating search results from multiple search-queries, taking into account discoveries made and synthesizing them into a newly compiled document is only at the beginning and motivates researchers to develop new tools for supporting those information seeking tasks.
In this dissertation I present the results of empirical research with the focus on evaluating search engines and developing a theoretical model of the complex search process that can be used to better support this special kind of search with existing search tools. It is not the goal of the thesis to implement a new search technology. Therefore performance benchmarks against established systems such as question answering systems are not part of this thesis.
I present a model that decomposes complex Web search tasks into a measurable, three-step process. I show the innate characteristics of complex search tasks that make them distinguishable from their less complex counterparts and showcase an experimentation method to carry out complex search related user studies. I demonstrate the main steps taken during the development and implementation of the Search-Logger study framework (the technical manifestation of the aforementioned method) to carry our search user studies. I present the results of user studies carried out with this approach. Finally I present development and application of the ATMS (awareness-task-monitor-share) model to improve the support for complex search needs in current Web search engines.
These studies were supported by European Social Fund's Doctoral Studies and Internationalisation Programme DoRa. Programme DoRa is carried out by Archimedes Foundation.