Rob Capra on Augmenting Web Search Surrogates With Images: Does It Help to Add Images To Web Search Results?
Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by the School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies (SLAIS).
Abstract of the Talk: While images are commonly used in search results for vertical domains such as shopping and news, web search results remain primarily text-based. In this talk, Dr. Capra presents results of two large-scale user studies to examine the effects of augmenting text-based result surrogates with images extracted from the underlying webpage. In short, Dr. Capra will address the question of, “Does it help to add images to web search results?” We evaluated effectiveness and efficiency at both the individual surrogate level and at the results page level, and also consider the goodness of the image in terms of representing the underlying page content. Results of these studies show trade offs in the use of images in web search surrogates, and highlight particular situations where they can provide benefits.
About the Speaker
Dr. Robert Capra is an Assistant Professor in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interests include human-computer interaction, personal information management, and digital information seeking behaviors, tools, and interfaces. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech and M.S. and B.S. degrees in Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis. At Virginia Tech, he was part of the Center for Human-Computer Interaction where he investigated multi-platform interfaces, information re-finding, and interfaces for digital libraries. Prior to Virginia Tech, he worked in corporate research and development, spending five years in the Speech and Language Technologies group at SBC Communications (now merged with AT&T Labs) where he focused on voice user interfaces, speech recognition, and natural language processing.
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