Keeping Found Things Found

The classic problem of information retrieval is to help people find the relatively small number of things they are looking for (books, articles, web pages, CDs, etc.) from a very large set of possibilities. A follow-on problem exists which has received relatively less study: Once found, how are things organized for re-access and re-use later on? What can be done to avoid the need to repeat the process by which the information was found in the first place?

This is the focus of the Keeping Found Things Found (KFTF) study being done at the University of Washington's Information School. Their research suggests that "keeping" techniques arise from the different ways people intend to use the information. Sometimes a person desires the portability of paper, the anywhere access of email, the permanence of a saved file or the speedy access from the browser's bookmarks. Aside from speed, though, bookmarks-the primary "keeping" tool provided by most Web browsers-rank low on many characteristics that users want, the researchers found.

In addition, regardless of "keeping" technique, KFTF researchers have found that, when you want to revisit a Web site, there's a good chance you first try three other options: directly entering the URL in your Web browser (often with help from the browser's autocompletion feature); searching with a search engine; or accessing it via another Web site or portal.

http://kftf.ischool.washington.edu/

[FWIW, I'm a recent convert to MyPip, a personalisable, web-based bookmarking database.]

Posted by Tom on February 24, 2004