Improved search engines and navigation preference in personal information management

• Published in: ACM transactions on information systems 2008-09, Vol.26 (4), p.1-24, Article 20
• Main Authors: Bergman, Ofer, Beyth-Marom, Ruth, Nachmias, Rafi, Gradovitch, Noa, Whittaker, Steve
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Contextual software domains; Data structures design and analysis; Design and analysis of algorithms; File systems management; HCI design and evaluation methods; Human computer interaction (HCI); Human-centered computing; Information storage systems; Information systems; Operating systems; Record storage systems; Software and its engineering; Software organization and properties; Sorting and searching; Theory of computation
• ISSN: 1046-8188; 1558-2868
• DOI: 10.1145/1402256.1402259

Traditionally users access their personal files mainly by using folder navigation. We evaluate whether recent improvements in desktop search have changed this fundamental aspect of Personal Information Management (PIM). We tested this in two studies using the same questionnaire: (a) The Windows Studya longitudinal comparison of Google Desktop and Windows XP Search Companion, and (b) The Mac Studya large scale comparison of Mac Spotlight and Sherlock. There were few effects for improved search. First, regardless of search engine, there was a strong navigation preference: on average, users estimated that they used navigation for 56-68% of file retrieval events but searched for only 4-15% of events. Second, the effect of improving the quality of the search engine on search usage was limited and inconsistent. Third, search was used mainly as a last resort when users could not remember file location. Finally, there was no evidence that using improved desktop search engines leads people to change their filing habits to become less reliant on hierarchical file organization. We conclude by offering theoretical explanations for navigation preference, relating to differences between PIM and Internet retrieval, and suggest alternative design directions for PIM systems.