General Characteristics of User Goals in Web Search

     People use search engines for many different reasons, and almost all searches are performed with a specific goal in mind. 60 % of all web searches are related to a search for a product or service, and 40% of all searches are related to non-informational searches.
     According to software scientists at Yahoo, there are three different search goal categories:

• navigational search
• informational search
• looking for a resource search

     The navigational search goal is defined as people trying to access a specific home page of the organization they have already identified. User queries containing the name of a specific organization or institution are considered navigational searches. For example, a single search for DePaul University, Chicago or the Louvre would be a navigational search. However, user searches for information about famous people are not considered navigational, because they return different media or fan sites, as opposed to a specific site. Interestingly, navigational queries do not dominate user searches.

The informational search goal is when users try to find any information about their search topic. This could be an answer to a question, advice, or information about a subject matter. The informational search can be divided into five different types: directed, undirected, advice, locate and list:

• A directed informational user search targets a specific topic with a closed or open-ended question. For example, the user can look for the date when the Second World War ended, or she/he may want to know the health benefits of eating kale. 
• The undirected informational user search is when the user is looking for anything or everything about the topic. For instance, a user seeking broad information about Mona Lisa may want to first know everything about the painting. Later, after getting more broad information, she/he may have a specific close or open-ended question about the same topic.
• Many people search for advice on the web. An example of an advice informational search is when the user is seeking advice on how to find love, train a dog, or change a tire. 
• Another type of  informational search is when users are trying to locate a product or service.  An example of that kind of query would be locating dry cleaning services, or sailing lessons.
• A different type of the informational search is list. Frequently, users look for a list of suggested websites which will result in achieving some undetermined goal. Those searches could be for the best restaurants in town or hotels.

     The resource queries goal is to find a resource, not information.  There are four different types of resource queries: download, entertainment, interact and obtain.

•       A download goal occurs when the user copies something from the Internet that needs to be installed, such as drivers or a program.
•      An entertainment goal is related to queries that deliver a resource, simply for the user’s entertainment.  An example would be the 2013 Fete de la Musique performances.
•      The interact goal happens when the anticipated search return is a dynamic web service. That service can be a currency exchange rate or a stock quote.
•      The fourth goal of the resource query is to obtain a resource that can be viewed or printed. These resources can be used in the off-line world, such as recipes or screenplays.

      It is important for computer scientists to explore the reason why people search in order to improve the search engines and returned results. This can be achieved by looking at the search query, returned results, results chosen by the user and further user actions.  

The article about user goals in web searching, written by Rose and Levinson from Yahoo, can be found here.