SLOW SEARCH Jaime Teevan, Kevyn Collins-Thompson, Ryen White, Susan Dumais and Yubin Kim

Slow Movements

Speed Focus in Search Reasonable

Not All Searches Need to Be Fast Long-term tasks Long search sessions Multi-session searches Social search Question asking Technologically limited Limited connectivity Mobile devices Search from space

Making Use of Additional Time

TIME + SEARCH Understand how time influences the search experience

Time in Search: Micro Scale Impact of sub-second changes in response time Study using large-scale query log analysis Natural variation exists within a single query Measure interaction as f(response time) Time to click Abandonment rate

Small Increases  Big Changes

Impact of Sub-Second Changes Imperceptible changes impact behavior Impact of slower page load time Slower time to click Increased abandonment Some queries more sensitive to time than others Time impacts navigational queries > informational Informational queries less impacted by very slow results

Time in Search: Macro Scale Impact of longer changes in response time Two user surveys with 1476 participants in total Detailed survey with 141 MSFT employees Online survey with 1335 people Asked about the participant’s last search Willingness to wait for results as f(response time)

Last Search Took Minutes or Hours

Time Constraints in Search Reported spending more time on some searches Important tasks Tasks with a deadline Tasks with bad search results Time constraints 34% of tasks needed results urgently 39% of tasks needed results by a deadline 27% of tasks needed results whenever

Willingness to Wait Time willing to wait < actual time spent searching Participants do not trust the search engine 28% people said they want “fast results always” For important tasks Spent more time searching than less important Willing to wait less than less important

Willing to Wait for Quality Results

Impact of Longer Intervals of Time People do not want to wait, but… Report spending a lot of time on important tasks 90% of the important tasks took more than 1 minute 23% of respondents found their results unacceptable Are willing wait in some cases When the results obtained were poor When a perfect answer is sought

Summary

QUESTIONS? Jaime Teevan Yubin Kim