Meirav Simha Maimon

Search engine results pages (SERPs) commonly organize online search results in a list-based format. Various viewing formats have been suggested to improve search effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction. However, except for the Knowledge Graph view, which is based on semantic search and appears as information boxes on the SERP, those views are rarely implemented in popular Web search engines. This study investigates the effect of three viewing formats (list, Google Knowledge Graph, and clustered list) on user performance and satisfaction when performing five common types of search tasks mapped in previous studies (navigate, find-simple, find-complex, locate/acquire, and explore/learn). A Chrome extension we developed is used to enable clustering on Google search results. While overall effectiveness was similar across viewing formats, efficiency and satisfaction varied significantly depending on the search task. The operative implication is that search engine viewing formats should adapt to the specific search task.