Mobile search often begins in the middle of something else: a conversation, a
journey, a decision, or a disagreement. This research examined those moments
and the interfaces that might support them.
SocialSearchBrowser combined local and event search with questions answered by
people in a user's social network. In its first one-week deployment, 16 mobile
participants created 56 questions and consulted 66 answers. A later month-long
study with 34 participants compared map and text interfaces. Maps encouraged
more questions and helped with unfamiliar places, while text made answers and
non-geographic information easier to scan. Neither interface was best in
every situation.
The work then moved from prototypes to everyday information behavior. A
four-week diary study collected 835 entries from 18 active mobile-Web users.
More than 70% of their activity occurred in familiar, stationary places such
as home or work, and more than 65% took place around other people. Mobile did
not simply mean moving.
Studies of social and co-located search showed that people also use phones to
settle questions, verify claims, plan together, and share results without
leaving the surrounding conversation. A later three-month study with more
than 100 participants recorded over 1,000 information needs, including needs
that were deferred, answered by another person, or never resolved.
The deployments were exploratory and reflect the devices, services, and
social conventions of the early smartphone era. Diary and
experience-sampling methods can also miss brief, private, or inconvenient
information needs.
Karen Church, Joachim Neumann, Mauro Cherubini, Nuria Oliver (2010). SocialSearchBrowser: A Novel Mobile Search and Information Discovery Tool. Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI 2010), 101-110. https://doi.org/10.1145/1719970.1719985
BibTeX
@inproceedings{church2010socialsearch,
author = {Karen Church and Joachim Neumann and Mauro Cherubini and Nuria Oliver},
title = {{SocialSearchBrowser}: A Novel Mobile Search and Information Discovery Tool},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI 2010)},
pages = {101--110},
year = 2010,
doi = {10.1145/1719970.1719985},
cites = 55,
citesdate = {2026-03-23}
}
Karen Church, Joachim Neumann, Mauro Cherubini, Nuria Oliver (2010). The Map Trap? An Evaluation of Map Versus Text-Based Interfaces for Location-Based Mobile Search Services. Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on World Wide Web (WWW 2010), 261-270. https://doi.org/10.1145/1772690.1772718
BibTeX
@inproceedings{church2010maptrap,
author = {Karen Church and Joachim Neumann and Mauro Cherubini and Nuria Oliver},
title = {The Map Trap? An Evaluation of Map Versus Text-Based Interfaces for Location-Based Mobile Search Services},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on World Wide Web (WWW 2010)},
pages = {261--270},
year = 2010,
doi = {10.1145/1772690.1772718},
cites = 50,
citesdate = {2026-03-23}
}
Karen Church, Nuria Oliver (2011). Understanding mobile web and mobile search use in today's dynamic mobile landscape. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, 67-76. https://doi.org/10.1145/2037373.2037385
BibTeX
@inproceedings{church2011understanding,
author = {Karen Church and Nuria Oliver},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services},
doi = {10.1145/2037373.2037385},
pages = {67--76},
publisher = {ACM},
title = {Understanding mobile web and mobile search use in today's dynamic mobile landscape},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2037373.2037385},
year = {2011}
}
Karen Church, Mauro Cherubini, Joachim Neumann, Nuria Oliver (2011). Understanding Mobile Information Needs on a Large-Scale: Tools, Experiences and Challenges. 2nd International Workshop on Research in the Large, 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1145/2025528.2025530
BibTeX
@inproceedings{church2011mobile,
author = {Karen Church and Mauro Cherubini and Joachim Neumann and Nuria Oliver},
title = {Understanding Mobile Information Needs on a Large-Scale: Tools, Experiences and Challenges},
booktitle = {2nd International Workshop on Research in the Large},
pages = {1--4},
year = 2011,
doi = {10.1145/2025528.2025530},
cites = 0,
citesdate = {2026-03-23}
}
Karen Church, Nuria Oliver (2011). Understanding portal-based mobile search: a case study. Proceedings of the 2nd international workshop on Research in the large, 21-24. https://doi.org/10.1145/2025528.2025535
BibTeX
@inproceedings{church2011understanding2,
author = {Karen Church and Nuria Oliver},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2nd international workshop on Research in the large},
doi = {10.1145/2025528.2025535},
pages = {21--24},
publisher = {ACM},
title = {Understanding portal-based mobile search: a case study},
url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-80054025658&partnerID=MN8TOARS},
year = {2011}
}
Karen Church, Antony Cousin, Nuria Oliver (2012). I Wanted to Settle a Bet! Understanding Why and How People Use Mobile Search in Social Settings. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI 2012), 393-402. https://doi.org/10.1145/2371574.2371635
BibTeX
@inproceedings{church2012mobile,
author = {Karen Church and Antony Cousin and Nuria Oliver},
title = {I Wanted to Settle a Bet! Understanding Why and How People Use Mobile Search in Social Settings},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI 2012)},
pages = {393--402},
year = 2012,
doi = {10.1145/2371574.2371635},
cites = 59,
citesdate = {2026-03-23}
}
Karen Church, Mauro Cherubini, Nuria Oliver (2014). A large-scale study of daily information needs captured in situ. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 21(2), 1-46. https://doi.org/10.1145/2552193
BibTeX
@article{church2014large,
author = {Karen Church and Mauro Cherubini and Nuria Oliver},
doi = {10.1145/2552193},
journal = {ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction},
number = {2},
pages = {1--46},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)},
title = {A large-scale study of daily information needs captured in situ},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2552193},
volume = {21},
year = {2014}
}
Sofia Reis, Karen Church, Nuria Oliver (2012). Rethinking Mobile Search: Towards Casual, Shared, Social Mobile Search Experiences. Searching 4, 1-4. https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-836/paper1.pdf
BibTeX
@inproceedings{reis2012rethinking,
author = {Sofia Reis and Karen Church and Nuria Oliver},
title = {Rethinking Mobile Search: Towards Casual, Shared, Social Mobile Search Experiences},
booktitle = {Searching 4},
pages = {1--4},
year = 2012,
url = {https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-836/paper1.pdf},
cites = 12
}
Sofia Reis, Karen Church, Nuria Oliver (2013). Insights into Co-Located Shared Mobile Search. CHI 2013 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1401-1406. https://doi.org/10.1145/2468356.2468606
BibTeX
@inproceedings{reis2013colocated,
author = {Sofia Reis and Karen Church and Nuria Oliver},
title = {Insights into Co-Located Shared Mobile Search},
booktitle = {CHI 2013 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
pages = {1401--1406},
year = 2013,
doi = {10.1145/2468356.2468606},
cites = 7,
citesdate = {2026-03-23}
}