Skip to main content

Modeling Long-Term Search Engine Usage

  • Conference paper
User Modeling, Adaptation, and Personalization (UMAP 2010)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 6075))

Abstract

Search engines are key components in the online world and the choice of search engine is an important determinant of the user experience. In this work we seek to model user behaviors and determine key variables that affect search engine usage. In particular, we study the engine usage behavior of more than ten thousand users over a period of six months and use machine learning techniques to identify key trends in the usage of search engines and their relationship with user satisfaction. We also explore methods to determine indicators that are predictive of user trends and show that accurate predictive user models of search engine usage can be developed. Our findings have implications for users as well as search engine designers and marketers seeking to better understand and retain their users.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Anderson, E.W., Sullivan, M.W.: The Antecedents and Consequences of Customer Satisfaction for Firms. Marketing Science 12, 125–143 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Anderson, R.E., Srinivasan, S.S.: E-Satisfaction and E-Loyalty: A Contingency Framework. Psychology and Marketing 20(3), 123–138 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Blum, A., Burch, C.: On-line Learning and the Metrical Task System Problem. Machine Learning 39(1), 35–58 (2000)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  4. Bolton, R.N.: A Dynamic Model of the Duration of the Customer’s Relationship with a Continuous Service Provider: The Role of Satisfaction. Marketing Science 17(1), 45–65 (1998)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  5. Capraro, A.J., Broniarczyk, S., Srivastava, R.K.: Factors Influencing the Likelihood of Customer Defection: The Role of Consumer Knowledge. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 31(2), 164–175 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Fox, S., Karnawat, K., Mydland, M., Dumais, S.T., White, T.: Evaluating Implicit Measures to Improve the Search Experience. ACM Transactions on Information Systems 23(2), 147–168 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Heath, A.P., White, R.W.: Defection Detection: Predicting Search Engine Switching. In: Ma, W.Y., Tomkins, A., Zhang, X. (eds.) World Wide Web Conference, pp. 1173–1174 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Juan, Y.F., Chang, C.C.: An Analysis of Search Engine Switching Behavior Using Click Streams. In: Deng, X., Ye, Y. (eds.) WINE 2005. LNCS, vol. 3828, pp. 806–815. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Keaveney, S.M., Parthasarathy, M.: Customer Switching Behavior in Online Services: An Exploratory Study of the Role of Selected Attitudinal, Behavioral, and Demographic Factors. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 29(4), 374–390 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Laxman, S., Tankasali, V., White, R.W.: Stream Prediction Using a Generative Model Based on Frequent Episodes in Event Sequences. In: Li, Y., Liu, B., Sarawagi, S. (eds.) ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, pp. 453–461 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Lee, D.D., Seung, S.: Learning the Parts of Objects by Non-negative Matrix Factorization. Nature 401, 788–791 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Mittal, B., Lassar, W.M.: Why do Customers Switch? The Dynamics of Satisfaction versus Loyalty. Journal of Services Marketing 12(3), 177–194 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Mukhopadhyay, T., Rajan, U., Telang, R.: Competition Between Internet Search Engines. In: Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Pew Internet and American Life Project: Search Engine Users (2005) (accessed December 2008)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Rasmussen, C.E., Williams, C.K.I.: Gaussian Processes for Machine Learning. MIT Press, Cambridge (2006)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  16. Sasser, T.O., Jones, W.E.: Why Satisfied Customers Defect. Harvard Business Review (November-December 1995)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Telang, R., Mukhopadhyay, T., Wilcox, R.: An Empirical Analysis of the Antecedents of Internet Search Engine Choice. In: Workshop on Information Systems and Economics (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  18. White, R.W., Dumais, S.T.: Characterizing and Predicting Search Engine Switching Behavior. In: Cheung, D., Song II, -Y., Chu, W., Hu, X., Lin, J., Li, J., Peng, Z. (eds.) ACM CIKM Conference on Information and Knowledge Management, pp. 87–96 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  19. White, R.W., Morris, D.: Investigating the Querying and Browsing Behavior of Advanced Search Engine Users. In: Clarke, C.L.A., Fuhr, N., Kando, N., Kraaij, W., de Vries, A.P. (eds.) ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval, pp. 255–261 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  20. White, R.W., Richardson, M., Bilenko, M., Heath, A.P.: Enhancing Web Search by Promoting Multiple Search Engine Use. In: Myaeng, S.-H., Oard, D.W., Sebastiani, F., Chua, T.S., Leong, M.K. (eds.) ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval, pp. 43–50 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

White, R.W., Kapoor, A., Dumais, S.T. (2010). Modeling Long-Term Search Engine Usage. In: De Bra, P., Kobsa, A., Chin, D. (eds) User Modeling, Adaptation, and Personalization. UMAP 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6075. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13470-8_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13470-8_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-13469-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-13470-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics