overview
Today, Web search is a solitary experience. Web browsers and search engine sites are typically designed to support a single user, working alone. However, collaboration on information-seeking tasks is actually quite commonplace. For example, students work together to complete homework assignments, friends seek information about entertainment opportunities, family members jointly plan vacation travel, and colleagues jointly conduct research for their projects. My research on collaborative search is aimed at facilitating small-group collaboration on search tasks. Collaborative search (also called "collaborative information seeking") is one example of social search, wherein users employ social resources to further an information need. More recently, I have begun to explore other aspects of social search, particularly the ways in which question-asking on social networks (friendsourcing) can complement the use of search engines.
teaching & service
My 2007 UIST paper on SearchTogether received the UIST Lasting Impact Award for its influence on the field of collaborative information retrieval. My 2010 book Collaborative Web Search: Who, What, Where, When, and Why (co-authored with Jaime Teevan for Morgan & Claypool's series on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services) is the first book on the subject of collaborative information seeking. I also served as guest editor (together with Gene Golovchinsky and Jeremy Pickens) for a special issue of the journal Information Processing & Management on the topic of Collaborative Information Seeking (Volume 46, Issue 6, Nov. 2010). Gene, Jeremy, and I also recently organized a series of 3 workshops on the topic: a workshop at JCDL 2008, a workshop at CSCW 2010, and a workshop at CIKM 2011.
I organized the Social Search Social at Microsoft Research in February 2012. This event provided an opportunity for attendees of WSDM 2012 and CSCW 2012 to meet each other and learn about ongoing work in the area of social and collaborative search. As part of that event, I set up a community e-mail list for the purposes of announcing CFPs or workshops related to social search, or for seeking collaborators or participants in social search research efforts. This is a low traffic list that is moderated to prevent spam. To join, fill out this short web form. To post, send a message to socialsearchannouncements@lists.research.microsoft.com (note that only list members can post messages). I also recently organized (along with several collaborators) the workshop on Social Media Question Asking, which was held in conjunction with CSCW 2013.
I have served as a program committee member for several of the top venues that feature social search research, including CSCW, ICWSM, and WWW, as well as speaking at industry events like the SMX conference. I chaired the "Interaction Beyond the Individual" papers subcommittee for the 2011 ACM CHI conference, and am program chair for CSCW 2014. I served as the general chair (together with Darren Gergle) for the CSCW 2016 conference. I also served as a member of the ACM CSCW Steering Committee from 2012 - 2015.
research projects
Formative studies & surveys on collaborative search
- surveys of users' collaborative search practices [ CHI 2008 paper ] [ CSCW 2013 paper ]
- motivations for supporting collaborative search [ CHI 2007 Exploratory Search & HCI Workshop paper ]
- diary study of co-located collaborative search practices [ CHI 2009 poster ]
- interviews with doctors about collaborative search in clinical settings [CIKM 2011 workshop paper]
Asynchronous collaboration via persistent representations of search
- S3: a system for storable, shareable search [ Interact 2007 paper ]
- SearchBar: a search-centric web history [ CHI 2008 paper ] [ CHI 2008 video (.mov) ] [ CHI 2007 Exploratory Search & HCI Workshop paper ]
Remote collaborative search
- SearchTogether: a system for remote collaboration on web search [ UIST 2007 paper (Lasting Impact Award winner) ] [ UIST 2007 video (.wmv) ] [ Free IE Plugin ]
- Enhancing collaborative Web search with personalization: Groupization, Smart Splitting, and Group Hit-Highlighting [ CSCW 2008 paper ] [ JCDL 2008 Collaborative IR Workshop paper ] [ WSDM 2009 paper ]
Co-located collaborative search
- Web search instruction for middle-school students [ CHI 2010 HCI and Education Workshop paper ] [ CHI 2011 paper ]
- An overview of the use of Surface Computing devices for search tasks [IP&M paper ]
- WeSearch: Collaborative web search for tabletop displays. [ CSCW 2010 paper and video ]
- CoSearch: a system for co-located collaborative web search using a shared computer augmented by multiple mice or mobile phones [ CHI 2008 paper ] [ CHI 2008 video (.mov) ] [ CHI 2008 HCI for International & Community Development Workshop paper ]
- TeamSearch: a system for co-located collaborative search using a tabletop display [ Tabletop 2006 paper ]
- O-SNAP: a system for co-located multi-smartphone searches [ CSCW 2014 poster/extended abstract ] [ IEEE Computer article ] [ HCIC 2014 paper ]
Collaborative sensemaking
- CoSense: a tool to support collaborative sensemaking for collaborative search [ CHI 2009 paper ] [ HCI Journal article ]
- thoughts on enhancing collaborative web search through shared sensemaking tools [ CHI 2008 Sensemaking Workshop paper ]
social network question-asking / friendsourcing
- A survey study of how people use social networks like Facebook and Twitter to ask and answer questions. [ CHI 2010 paper ]
- A comparison of information seeking using search engines and social networks. [ ICWSM 2010 paper ]
- A study of the use of social networks by the blind, and blind users' preferences regarding friendsourced vs. crowdsourced Q&A [ CSCW 2013 paper ]
- analysis of visual challenges facing blind people based on questions posted to a friend/crowdsourcing service [ CHI 2013 paper ]
- Understanding how question phrasing on Facebook impacts response metrics. [ ICWSM 2011 paper ] [ more detailed MSR Tech Report ]
- Cross-cultural differences in social network Q&A [ ICWSM 2011 paper ]
- Socially Embedded Search Engines [ ICWSM 2012 paper ] [ ICWSM 2013 paper ]
- Overview of Social Network / Search Engine research [ HCIC 2012 paper ]
- Survey data on frequency of SNS Q&A on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn [ CSCW 2013 paper ]
- information provenance in Q&A forum exchanges [ ICWSM 2013 paper ] [ CiteHistory browser plugin and video ]
- how people route questions to search engines vs. social network Q&A [ CSCW 2014 paper ]
- use of friendsourcing (and crowdsourcing) for remote shopping advice [CSCW 2014 paper ]
- The economics of friendsourcing (quantifying the social costs involved) [ CHI 2014 paper ]
- Q&A hashtag use on Twitter [ CHI 2014 paper ]
- Proposing and studying the concept of social microvolunteering as a mechanism for friendsourcing on behalf of altruistic causes [ CHI 2015 paper ]
Social Search
- Socially embedded search engines [ ICWSM 2012 paper ] [ ICWSM 2013 paper ]
- Comparing Twitter search and Web search [ WSDM 2011 paper ]
- Exploring the relationship between trending search engine queries and trending topics on Twitter [ ICWSM 2013 paper ]
- Understanding Twitter credibility perceptions [ CSCW 2012 paper ] [ CSCW 2013 paper ]
- Comparing health information seeking on search engines and Twitter [ CHI 2014 paper ]
Search education
- ClassSearch: a system for teaching search skills to middle school students [ CHI 2011 paper ]
- supporting credibility assessment during search [ CHI 2011 paper and dataset ] [ CSCW 2012 paper ]