Research on Web Search and User Search Behaviors in Mainland China

Abstract

There was a great boom of research on information behaviors, especially Web search behaviors, in the past five years in Mainland China. The research in this area covers a variety of topics, including task, user characteristics, information need, mental model, search strategy, queries and clicks, system related research, etc. This chapter is a review of research on Web search and user search behaviors in Mainland China. The review demonstrates that there are several well-organized teams of researchers in this field, each focusing on different aspects of users’ behaviors, and there is much collaboration between researchers in China and abroad. The review of current research also has suggestions for future research in this filed in Mainland China. More research should be conducted on important issues during the complete search process, like information need, search task, and interactions. In addition, besides survey, log mining, and experiment methods, other methods and more solid research design should be taken into consideration in the future research in Mainland China.