Slow Search

Abstract

We live in a world where the pace of everything from communication to transportation is getting faster. In recent years a number of "slow movements" have emerged that advocate for reducing speed in exchange for increasing quality, including the slow food movement, slow parenting, slow travel, and even slow science. We propose the concept of "slow search," where search engines use additional time to provide a higher quality search experience than is possible given conventional time constraints. While additional time can be used to identify relevant results within the existing search engine framework, it can also be used to create new search artifacts and enable previously unimaginable user experiences. This talk will focus on how search engines can make use of additional time to employ a resource that is inherently slow: other people. Using crowdsourcing and friendsourcing, it will highlight opportunities for search systems to support new search experiences with high quality result content that takes time to identify.