Multimedia web searching trends: 1997-2001

Abstract

Multimedia is proliferating on Web sites, as the Web continues to enhance the integration of multimedia and textual information. In this paper we examine trends in multimedia Web searching by Excite users from 1997 to 2001. Results from an analysis of 1,025,910 Excite queries from 2001 are compared to similar Excite datasets from 1997 to 1999. Findings include: (1) queries per multimedia session have decreased since 1997 as a proportion of general queries due to the introduction of multimedia buttons near the query box, (2) multimedia queries identified are longer than non-multimedia queries, and (3) audio queries are more prevalent than image or video queries in identified multimedia queries. Overall, we see multimedia Web searching undergoing major changes as Web content and searching evolves.