I wanted to settle a bet!

Abstract

Recent work in mobile computing has highlighted that conversations and social interactions have a significant impact on mobile Web and mobile search behaviours. To date, however, this social element has not been explored fully and little is known about why and how mobile users search for information in social settings. The goal of this work is to provide a deeper understanding of social mobile search behaviours so that we may improve future mobile search experiences that involve a social component. To this end we present the results of two studies: a survey involving almost 200 users and a two-week diary and follow-up interview study of 20 users. Our results extend past research in the mobile search space, by exploring the motivations, circumstances and experiences of using mobile search in social settings to satisfy group information needs. Our findings point to a number of open research challenges and implications for enriching the search experiences of mobile users.