Open AccessGoogle, tear down this wall to exploratory search!
Author(s) -
Cole Charles
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
bulletin of the association for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2373-9223
DOI - 10.1002/bult.2014.1720400513
Subject(s) - exploratory search , computer science , search analytics , search engine , information retrieval , perception , set (abstract data type) , semantic search , search engine indexing , world wide web , meaning (existential) , process (computing) , exploratory research , cognition , human–computer interaction , psychology , web search query , operating system , neuroscience , sociology , anthropology , programming language , psychotherapist
EDITOR'S SUMMARY While Google serves traditional search needs adequately, it provides no assistance with exploratory search, unable to help a searcher crystallize a search goal. Evolutionary psychology illustrates a gradually developing search for meaning, combining beliefs with discovered knowledge, to expand a perceptual‐cognitive system. Similarly the information searcher progressively opens his or her cognitive system upon interacting with unfamiliar stimuli. The interactions typically occur in a series, with each new discovery or set of search results being associated with prior knowledge and other information sources, modifying the information need and helping to refine the search goal. This exploratory process may be followed by a command search for evidence to back up a thesis, a phase that Google serves well. An interactive, assisted, exploratory search is proposed. It has been demonstrated in Astrolabe, a prototype virtual search environment, and could be incorporated into the Google search engine.