Search Results Presentation

Until now, we’ve mostly focused on query processing — which is to be expected, given that this series is about query understanding. But given that searchers are ultimately interested in the results, it’s also important to consider how the search engine presents those results.

How the search engine presents results matters for two reasons.

The first reason is that an effective presentation allows searchers to quickly determine whether a particular search result is relevant to their needs. Search result snippets, also known as as search result summaries, will be the subject of the next post. These serve the critical function of signalling relevance at a per-result level. No retrieval strategy can achieve perfect precision, but good search result snippets reduce the need for searchers to click through to a result to determine whether it is relevant to their intent.

The second reason is that the presentation of results should reflect the nature of the query and, when the search engine can infer it, the underlying information-seeking task. For example, a search intended to retrieve a specific result calls for a different presentation style than a query intended to explore a broad collection of results. In addition, the types of objects in the search results — e.g., books vs. shoes — often suggest a particular visual presentation.

The search engine shouldn’t just return the right results — it should present them in a way that communicates those results effectively and efficiently. We’ll use the next couple of posts to discuss various ways to do so.

Previous: Faceted Search

Next: Search Result Snippets