Web Search: Public Searching of the Web [electronic resource] / edited by Amanda Spink, Bernhard J. Jansen.

Technological, Social and Organizational Context -- Human Information Behavior and Human Computer Interaction Context -- Research Design -- Search Terms -- Search Queries -- Search Sessions -- E-Commerce Web Searching -- Medical and Health Web Searching -- Sexually-Related Web Searching -- Multimedia Searching -- Key Findings, Trends, Further Research and Conclusions.

Web Search: Public Searching of the Web, co-authored by Drs. Amanda Spink and Bernard J. Jansen, is one of the first manuscripts that address the human - system interaction of Web searching in a thorough and complete manner. The authors provide an examination of Web searching from multiple levels of analysis, from theoretical overview to detailed study of term usage, and integrate these different levels of analysis into a coherent picture of how people locate information on the Web using search engines. Drawing primarily on their own research and work in the field, the authors present the temporal changes in, the growth of, and the stability of how people interact with Web search engines. Drs. Spink and Jansen present results from an analysis of multiple search engine data sets over a six year period, giving a firsthand account of the emergence of Web searching. They also compare and contrast their findings to the results of other researchers in the field, providing a valuable bibliographic resource. This research is directly relevant to those interested in providing information or services on the Web, along with those who research and study the Web as an information resource. Graduate students, academic and corporate researchers, search engine designers, information architects, and search engine optimizers will find the book of particular benefit.