Social tags in text and image search

This research-in-progress investigates the use of tags during the search process, for both image searches and text searches, through a user study. The use of tags for query reformulation, predictive judgment, and evaluative judgment of relevance is examined through transaction log data and post-search interviews. For both text and image searches, tags are most frequently used for query reformulation, but rarely used for evaluative judgment. Tag use occurs most frequently from the search results page, as the tags displayed in the search results page are used for query reformulation as well as predictive judgment. Results suggest that tags should be visible to users across all stages of the search process.