Incorporating Clicks, Attention and Satisfaction into a Search Engine Result Page Evaluation Model
Aleksandr Chuklin, Maarten de Rijke · 2016
Modern search engine result pages often provide immediate value to users and organize information in such a way that it is easy to navigate. The core ranking function contributes to this and so do result snippets, smart organization of result blocks and extensive use of one-box answers or side panels. While they are useful to the user and help search engines to stand out, such features present two big challenges for evaluation. First, the presence of such elements on a search engine result page (SERP) may lead to the absence of clicks, which is, however, not related to dissatisfaction, so-called 'good abandonments.' Second, the non-linear layout and visual difference of SERP items may lead to non-trivial patterns of user attention, which is not captured by existing evaluation metrics.