Who, What, Where & When: A New Approach to Mobile Search
By Karen Church & Barry Smyth (University College Dublin)
Summary:
This article discusses the increasing popularity of searching the internet on a mobile device and how interfaces must adapt their content to suit these users. Church and Smyth offer a "new search browser interface" to help in delivering improved search queries and content. Their browser marks information of location and time of users, and delivers the new related queries that correspond to the marked previous queries.
Prototype
The prototype focuses on entertainment and tourism sites in the Dublin area. First, the user sees a map of their current place and it displays the "recent queries and result-selections" that have been seen by other users in the same location as red and yellow markers. The user then can filter the queries by time or preferences.
As noted in the article, their prototype proved their application delivers a unique search experience. However, no data was presented on the user's opinions/experiences with using the prototype.
Discussion:
This article is interesting and brings up the important point that applications must be unique for mobile devices. By adjusting to the benefits and limitations of the mobile phone, we can enhance the user's interaction and experience. However, I would have liked to see data, such as a user study, to see how a typical user interacts with the product.
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