Exploratory search

Exploratory search is a specialization of information exploration, which represents the activities carried out by searchers who are either [1] :
* a) unfamiliar with the domain of their goal (ie need to learn about the topic in order to understand how to achieve their goal)
* b) unsure about the ways to achieve their goals (either the technology or the process)
* c) or even unsure about their goals in the first place.

Consequently, Exploratory Search covers a broader class of activities (compared to typical Information Retrieval), such as investigating, evaluating, comparing, and synthesizing, where new information is sought in a defined conceptual area; exploratory data analysis is another example of an information exploration activity. Typically, therefore, such users generally combine querying and browsing strategies to foster learning and investigation.

History

Exploratory Search is a topic that has grown from the fields of Information Retrieval and Information seeking, but has become more and more concerned with the alternative scenarios of search that have received the majority of focus (returning the most relevant documents to a Google-like keyword search). The research is motivated by questions like "what if the user doesn't know which keywords to use?" or "what if the user isn't looking for a single answer?". Consequently, research has begin to focus on defining the broader set of "Information Behaviors" in order to learn about the situations when a user is, or feels, limited by only having the ability to perform a keyword search.

In the last few years, a series of workshops have been held at various related and key events. In 2005, the [http://research.microsoft.com/~ryenw/xsi/index.html Exploratory Search Interfaces workshop] focused on beginning to define some of the key challenges in the field. Since then a series of other workshops have been held at related conferences: [http://research.microsoft.com/~ryenw/eess/index.html Evaluating Exploratory Search] at [http://www.sigir2006.org SIGIR06] and [http://research.microsoft.com/~ryenw/esi/index.html Exploratory Search and HCI] at [http://www.chi2007.org CHI07] (in order to meet with the experts in Human Computer Interaction).

In March 2008, a Information Processing and Management [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03064573 Special Issue] [2] has focused particularly on the challenges of evaluating Exploratory Search, given the reduced assumptions that can be made about scenarios of use.

In June 2008, the National Science Foundation is sponsoring an [http://www.ils.unc.edu/ISSS_workshop/ invitational workshop] to identify a research agenda for Exploratory Search and similar fields for the coming years.

Key Research Challenges

Important Scenarios

With the majority of research in the Information Retrieval community focusing on typical keyword search scenarios, one challenge for Exploratory Search is to further understand the scenarios of use for when keyword search is not sufficient. An example scenario, often used to motivate the research by [http://mspace.fm mSpace] states: if a user does not know much about classical music, how should they even begin to find a piece that they might like.

Designing New Interfaces

With one of the motivations being to support users when keyword search is not enough, some research has focused on identifying alternative user interfaces and interaction models that support the user in different ways. An example is faceted search which presents diverse category-style options to the user, so that they can choose from a list instead of guess a possible keyword query.

Many of the interactive forms of search, including Faceted browsers, are being considered for their support of exploratory search conditions.

Evaluating Exploratory Search Interfaces

As the tasks and goals involved with Exploratory Search are largely undefined or unpredictable, it is very hard to evaluate systems with the measures often used in Information Retrieval. Accuracy was typically used to show that a user had found a correct answer, but when the user is trying to summarize a domain of information, the "correct" answer is near impossible to identify, if not entirely subjective (for example: possible hotels to stay in Paris). In exploration, it is also arguable that spending more time (where time efficiency is typically desirable) researching a topic shows that a system provides increased support for investigation. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, giving study participants a well specified task could immediately prevent them from exhibiting exploratory behavior.

Major Figures

Key figures, including experts from both Information seeking and Human Computer Interaction, are:

*Ryen White
*Gary Marchionini
*Nicholas Belkin
*m.c. schraefel

References

#White, R.W., Kules, B., Drucker, S.M., and schraefel, m.c. (2006). "Supporting Exploratory Search", Introduction to Special Section of Communications of the ACM, Vol. 49, Issue 4, (2006), pp. 36-39.
#Ryen W. White, Gary Marchionini, Gheorghe Muresan (2008). "Evaluating exploratory search systems: Introduction to special topic issue of information processing and management" Vol. 44, Issue 2, (2008), pp. 433-436