INFORUM 2011

What Do You Find in a Network? The Change of Concept of Relevance Concerning Search Results in Social Networks

Author

Kateřina Hronová, Charles University in Prague - Faculty of Arts - Institute of Information Studies and Librarianship, Czech Republic

Documents to download

• Presentation

Abstract

Social networks haven’t been primarily intended for full text searching. One of their biggest strengths is user created, shared and evaluated multimedia content. Moreover, user profiles contain a large amount of personal information. Marketing experts and search engines and other tools designers realized this a few years ago. The relationship among users as well as their activity in the social network (e.g. evaluation of internet sources, products, services, publishing photos etc.) is reflected in the search algorithms. Information retrieval through the use of certain search engines (like Google, Bing) is becoming socialized and therefore personalized. This conference paper aims at the fact that ‘social searching’ changes the concept of relevance (pertinence) in the context of online information retrieval. The paper brings a comparison of search results before and after incorporating content from social networks. Finally, it shows ways that social networks are able to change users’ search habits and behavior.

Author's professional CV

Mgr. Kateřina Hronová (born Pojerová) is a PhD. student at the Institute of Information Studies and Librarianship, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. She has worked at a nonprofit organization Neziskovky.cz as an information specialist, while also working as a freelance trainer for Elsevier B.V. She is currently on maternity leave.