“Abstract:
Drawing on search interfaces from the past and present, I will explore the claim that online information search systems have moved through three distinct periods of development. The first period focused on helping people explore, develop, and resolve their information needs through interaction. During this period, many interfaces were modeled after the reference interview and included novel interactive features, such as relevance feedback and search result visualizations. During the second period, a turn was taken towards extracting information from information seekers primarily through implicit techniques such as logging. Search became more passive and people no longer needed to explicitly provide queries or feedback. Instead, systems inferred interests based on large-scale log data and began using aggregate needs and behaviors to standardize search results and homogenize search behaviors. In the current period, the focus has turned towards the hypnotic and transactional where information seekers function as trainers, crawlers, and harvesters for generative AI systems. Rather than viewing information seekers as unique individuals with the capacity for agency, information seekers are viewed as information processors and providers who only need mediated and limited access to information, even if through dialogic interfaces.”
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