Rethinking Mobile Search Queries using Context

In some search domains, user context is often related to user search intent or preference. Such context however is rudimentarily used in search queries. Mobile devices, through their sensors and data content however have an abundance of information that can indicate the user context. Such context information can be used to influence, filter or re-rank search results to better match user needs. In this, paper we present some of the previous work where user context was used to improve the mobile search experience, as well as work that attempted to understand how user context is related to search intent. Our findings show that previous work primarily focused user location, with great neglect to other types of context that may be of great significance to search results. The work we present in this paper attempts to understand how a wide range of types of context influence a particular search domain. The types of context we study include location, time, day, weather and movement. We analyze how such context information can influence search needs when searching for restaurants and movies. Our analysis is based on a survey that was taken by 179 respondents. We describe the survey, how it was authored and reviewed, and then analyze the results and findings as deals with the most important contextual pieces of information that could be used to enhance the mobile search experience.