Display time as implicit feedback: understanding task effects

Recent research has had some success using the length of time a user displays a document in their web browser as implicit feedback for document preference. However, most studies have been confined to specific search domains, such as news, and have not considered the effects of task on display time, and the potential impact of this relationship on the effectiveness of display time as implicit feedback. We describe the results of an intensive naturalistic study of the online information-seeking behaviors of seven subjects during a fourteen-week period. Throughout the study, subjects’ online information-seeking activities were monitored with various pieces of logging and evaluation software. Subjects were asked to identify the tasks with which they were working, classify the documents that they viewed according to these tasks, and evaluate the usefulness of the documents. Results of a user-centered analysis demonstrate no general, direct relationship between display time and usefulness...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: SIGIR
• Authors: Diane Kelly, Nicholas J. Belkin
• Keywords: Display Time, Implicit Feedback, Online Information-seeking, SIGIR 2004