Today,Web search is treated as a solitary experience.Web browsers and search engines are typically
designed to support a single user, working alone. However, collaboration on information-seeking
tasks is actually commonplace. Students work together to complete homework assignments, friends
seek information about joint entertainment opportunities, family members jointly plan vacation
travel, and colleagues jointly conduct research for their projects. As improved networking technologies
and the rise of social media simplify the process of remote collaboration, and large, novel display
form-factors simplify the process of co-located group work, researchers have begun to explore ways
to facilitate collaboration on search tasks.
This lecture investigates the who, what, where, when and why of collaborative search, and gives
insight in how emerging solutions can address collaborators’ needs.