Searching Online for Art and Culture: User Behavior Analysis

With the constant expansion of the Web, search engines became part of people’s daily routines. How users behave during the search process depends on a variety factors, one of which is the topic of their search interest. This study focused on the behavior of users searching the Web for content related to art and cultural heritage. A proprietary, publicly available, federated search engine, in the form of a web and mobile app, was developed for this research’s purposes. This platform was used to monitor actual user behavior during a six-month period. Quantitative data related to the platform’s usage were collected and analyzed in order to provide a detailed picture of the way interested parties engaged with it. This information pertained not only to the search queries and results viewed, but also to the various characteristics of the search sessions themselves. The study presented an analysis of these data, with emphasis on query and result characteristics, usage devices, login preferences and session duration, and drew conclusions. The study’s findings showed, among other things, that art searchers showed a preference for shorter queries, a tendency for higher query repeatability, and showed interest in a wider number of results than general purpose searchers. Additionally, they were more keen to use desktop devices instead of mobile ones and displayed higher engagement metrics during longer search sessions or when logged in. These findings outlined an art searcher who was interested in concepts and people often revisited searches and results, showed interest for more than the first few hits, was attracted by rich content, and understood the art search process as a task which requires focus. They also pointed out a duality in the art search process itself which can be long and involved or short and purposeful.