This study has taken a first step in implementing
a probabilistic method exploiting search logs and
validating it empirically. Further studies along this
line, such as performance variance on different tasks,
will add dimension to the present study and promote
successful information retrieval on the Web. With
the increasing importance of improving search
engine performance, it is imperative that researchers
interested in system design as well as user studies
take seriously the recommendations discussed above
and provide opportunities to improve end-user
searching, and search engine effectiveness.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many thanks to Dr. Karen Spärck Jones for helping
to shape my original conceptual design of unified
probabilistic retrieval. I am grateful to Professor
Junghoo Cho and Dr. Alexandros Ntoulas for
providing their help and the resources for the
experiment. Thanks also to professors Jonathan
Furner, Gregory H. Leazer, Christine Borgman,
Mark H. Hansen, and Kathleen Burnett for their
valuable feedback. This research was supported by
Dissertation Fellowship, University of California,
Los Angeles, and First Year Assistant Professor
Award (FYAP), Florida State University.
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