One week with a corporate search engine: A time-based analysis of intranet information seeking
Dick Stenmark · 2005
In this explorative work, we have focused on understanding information seeking behaviour amongst intranet users. Bycarrying out a time-based analysis of a week’s worth of log data from a corporate-internal search engine, we have been ableto observe patterns of usage as it shifts over days and hours. The results show that numbers of started sessions and activitiescorrelate and follow business hours closely but also that the number of terms per query differs significantly over the day butis constant over the week. The number of active users and the number of sessions are higher early in the week and declines asthe week progresses, and we also note that frequent search engine users also log more activities per visit. This study showsthat intranet seeking behaviour differs from what is known about public web searching. The main contribution is the baselinefor more targeted intranet studies that this study provides.