Pick me!: link selection in expertise search results

Expertise locator systems have been designed to help find experts within organizations. While there are many examples of these systems in the literature, there has not been any systematic analysis of the factors that predict whether a particular expertise search result will be selected for further exploration. This paper describes a study of 67 employees from 21 countries that performed a specific expertise search to find an expert using an expertise locator system. Rank order and social connection information displayed in snippets of search results were found to significantly predict whether a user considers a particular search result for further exploration. Implications for the design of expertise location systems and future research directions are discussed. ACM Categories and Subject Descriptors H.5.0. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g. HCI): General. General Terms Design, Experimentation. Authors Keywords Expertise search, people search, social networks

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: CHI
• Authors: N. Sadat Shami, Kate Ehrlich, David R. Millen
• Keywords: CHI 2008, Expertise Location Systems, Expertise Locator Systems, Human Computer Interaction, Specific Expertise Search