Searchbots: Using Chatbots in Collaborative Information-seeking Tasks

The popularity of messaging platforms such as Slack has given rise to thousands of different chatbots that users can engage with individually or as a group. The proposed dissertation research will investigate the use of searchbots (i.e., chatbots that perform specific search operations) during collaborative information-seeking tasks. Specifically, we will address the following research goals. RG1: Our first research goal will be to investigate the use of searchbots in a collaborative search scenario. The goal of collaborative search is to develop systems that help two or more people collaborate synchronously or asynchronously on information-seeking tasks. Collaborative search systems such as SearchTogether~\cite{Morris2007}, Coagmento~\cite{shah2010coagmento}, CollabSearch~\cite{Yue2012}, and ResultsSpace~\cite{Capra2012} allow users to share information, communicate asynchronously or in real-time, and provide interactive visualizations that raise awareness of each user's search activities, allowing users to learn from each other's search strategies and avoid duplicating work. Prior research shows that while people often search in pairs and in larger groups, they do so without the use of specialized search tools and instead coordinate via "out-of-channel" communication tools such as email, text messaging, phone, and social media~\cite{morris2008survey,Morris2013}. Our first goal will be to investigate the use of searchbots during real-time collaborative search tasks. Our interest in the use of searchbots for collaborative search echoes a suggestion made by Morris~\cite{Morris2013} to develop lightweight collaborative search tools over existing communication platforms.