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The web searching of Greeks: an exploratory study

Efthimis N. Efthimiadis and Pei-Yun Hsueh

Presented at ASIST 2004 Annual Meeting; "Managing and Enhancing Information: Cultures and Conflicts" (ASIST AM 04), Providence, Rhode Island, November 13 - 18, 2004


Abstract

This research investigates the searching behavior of Greeks through the analysis of web search logs from AltaVista. Searches that originated from Greece for the period of two months, January and February 2004, have been analyzed. The log data include cookie, date, time, query, query expansion using AltaVista's PRISMA, and number of result pages seen. The data allow for a longitudinal study of search behavior based on cookie information. The results report on a new method of session segmentation that incorporates cookie, time and query term overlap. The analysis looks at the data both as individual instances as well as sessions. Statistics include frequencies of queries, term distributions, languages used including mixed language queries, search features used, query length, query formulation, query expansion and query modification patterns. Queries have been analyzed with respect to problems in query syntax and misconceptions in query formulation. The results of this web segmentation study are compared to those of previous web search log studies and highlight on the differences of such studies.


  
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