A day in the life of Web searching: An exploratory study

Abstract

Understanding Web searching behavior is important in developing more successful and cost-efficient Web search engines. We provide results from a comparative time-based Web study of US-based Excite and Norwegian-based Fast Web search logs, exploring variations in user searching related to changes in time of the day. Findings suggest: (1) fluctuations in Web user behavior over the day, (2) user investigations of query results are much longer, and submission of queries and number of users are much higher in the mornings, and (3) some query characteristics, including terms per query and query reformulation, remain steady throughout the day. Implications and further research are discussed.