Beyond Web Search: How Email Search is Different and Why it Matters

Web search has transformed how we access all kinds of information and has become a core fabric of everyday life. It is used to find information, buy things, plan travel, understand medical conditions, monitor events, etc. Search in other domains has not received nearly the same attention so our experiences in web search shape our thinking about search more generally even when the scenarios are quite different. This is especially true for email search. Although email was initially designed to facilitate asynchronous communication, it has also become a large repository of personal information. The volume of email continues to grow in both consumer and enterprise settings, and search plays a key role in getting back to needed information. Email search is, however, very different than Web search on many dimensions -- the content being sought is personal and private, metadata such as who sent it or when it was sent is plentiful and important, search intentions are different, people know a lot about what they are looking for, etc. Given these differences, new approaches are required. In this talk I will summarize research we have done using large-scale behavioral logs and complementary qualitative methods to characterize what are people looking for, what they know about what they are looking for, and how this interacts with email management practices. I will then describe several opportunities to help people articulate their information needs and design interfaces and interaction techniques to support this. Finally, I will conclude by pointing to new frontiers in email management and search.