A study of real-time query expansion effectiveness

In this poster, we describe the study of an interface technique that provides a list of suggested additional query terms as a searcher types a search query, in effect offering interactive query expansion (IQE) options while the query is formulated. Analysis of the results shows that offering IQE during query formulation leads to better quality initial queries, and an increased uptake of query expansion. These findings have implications for how IQE should be offered in retrieval interfaces.