Automatic Task Detection in the Web Logs and Analysis of Multitasking

摘要

In this paper, we describe the conceptual basis and results of the Web search task detection study with emphasis on multitasking. The basis includes: logical structure of a search process, a space of physical realizations, mapping of a logical structure into the space of realizations. Questions on the users' manners of search realization are formulated, with emphasis on multiple tasks execution. An automatic analysis of the Web logs shows that multitasking is rare, usually it includes only two task sessions and is formed into a temporal inclusion of an interrupting task session into the interrupted one. Searchers follow the principle of least effort and select the cheapest tactics: sequential tasks execution as a rule or, in the rare case of multitasking, the least expensive form of it. Quantitative characteristics of search behavior in 3 classes of temporal sessions (1-task session, several tasks executed one-by-one, and multitasking session) were compared, and significant differences were revealed.