Dan Russell's Home Page & Site

Daniel Russell's Home Page

I work at Google.

I write. I analyze. I experiment. I do field studies and I try to understand
what makes Google users tick.

Why do they sometimes query Google for [ first ], and then not click on anything?

Why do some Google users only ask one query, while others can go on and on?

What's different about their search experiences?

Why?

Me, having fun, diving in Belize, 2012 (Thanks to Tom Gruber for the image)

How do Google users measure success? What constitutes failure? How can the
search engine know in order to make the next time you search that much better?

Most recently, I've been focusing on what skills searchers need to have in
order to be effective searchers. Not surprisingly, just a few key skills can
make your searching MUCH better.

This page is my home-page site; a collection of resources I've created--papers, essays, lessons, links to videos.

To read my blog about how to be a better searcher: SearchResearch

More about Dan...

Most Recent Work (i.e., right now...)

My blog: SearchResearch I started writing a blog about search and how people learn to research (and a few other topics that are related as well). Come read this if you're interested in improving your ability to search, if you want to learn about sensemaking or are curious about how to teach search or research skills in your classroom. I post roughly 3 to 4 times each week. Each Wednesday I post a Search Challenge that tests your ability to search.
Search Education: I run a small team at Google that is actively creating materials to teach people how to search. You can find LOTS of teaching resources at the Google Search Education Evangelism web site.
New! AGoogleADay.com If you want to keep your search skills up, consider doing AGoogleADay.com each morning. It's a short, simple search challenge that will keep your skills sharp! (And you should be learning something new about the world every day as a side-effect.)

Upcoming classes

April 19, 2012. "Google Tech Web Search" Ever try to find something very specific and very technical? This class will help you discover strategies that work for searching out information in a particular topic area. We'll cover finding course notes and materials, illustrations, images, and parts for specific kinds of classes (e.g. science, math, technology). You'll learn how to find repositories, the use of domain-specific language, and terms to search out just what you need. RAFT location in San José, CA. You can sign up for this class at http://www.raft.net/workshops/in-house Note: you do NOT need to be a member of RAFT to attend this class (but if you're not, there's a small fee involved--contact RAFT for details). 5:30 - 7:30PM.

If you're bummed about not getting into these classes, please let me know by
Clicking Here to sign up for the NEXT CLASS notification.
We often hold classes at the Googleplex for teachers and librarians. The next one will probably be in April, 2012. Click Here to sign up for the NEXT CLASS notification.

Upcoming talks

"The ever-changing cloud experience: Why future UXs will be constantly shape-shifting"
Future Visions Symposium, April 19, 2012, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
"Why you still need to think when you search"
Future Visions Symposium, April 19, 2012, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO

Select Recent Presentations (not all of them, thank heavens)

What does it mean to be literate in the Age of Google? February 28, 2012. Princeton Louis Clark Vanuxem Lecture.

Video of my presentation 88:21 TRT

Sensemaking III: What people do to search-for and organize complex information, Friday, January 20, 2012, 12:30PM. Stanford, Gates Building. http://hci.stanford.edu/courses/cs547/

Using Google Scholar and other web resources for education, Jan 6, 2012

YouTube video of the talk. 41:15 TRT

U Md Future of Information Alliance, November 14, 2011.
Video of the opening talks for the conference

my part is from 14:00 to 34:00

Search / Research as Literate Skills. Global Science Communication Fellows Workshop, Google, June 13, 2011.
YouTube video of the talk.

Google Innovation, Culture and Practices CITRIS, UC Berkeley, March 15, 2011.
YouTube video of the talk.

The Future of Information Services, Services Sciences Innovation Institute (SRII), San Jose, April 1, 2011.
YouTube video of the talk

Why is search sometimes easy and sometimes hard?: Understanding serendipity and expertise in the mind of the searcher, 4th Human-Computer-Information-Retrieval workshop 2010, New Brunswick, NJ (Rutgers). August 22, 2010 (PDF)

Abstract: Is search a solved problem? Certainly not from the user's perspective. Some web searchers are incredibly effective at satisfying their goals with search engines, while others seem to have trouble getting their questions framed, let alone answered. Why are some searchers so good, and what do they do differently than others? I'll talk about some of the differences between searchers at different proficiency levels and what it means to learn how to search and research… and what the difference is.

So you think you know how to search? 20 things you probably ought to know, ISTE 2010 Google Exhibit presentation, Denver, CO (PDF) (June 27 & 28, 2010)

The mind of the researcher, AKLA keynote presentation (Anchorage, AK) (PDF 5.2Mb) (Mar 5, 2010)

Short tutorial on logs analysis for HCI, HCI Consortium Meeting, Snow Mountain Ranch, CO (Feb 25, 2010)
with Robin Jeffries, Sue Dumais and Jaime Teevan (PDF 3.1Mb)
PPTX version (3.2Mb) PPT version (5.2Mb)

Advanced Search for Teachers, RAFT, San Jose, CA (Feb 18, 2010)

Finding what you seek: How Google users think about search (and how they actually search), UC Merced, KL 202, Invited lecture (part of "Mind, Science & Society" series, October 12, 2009)

Seeing the invisible, Thinking the impossible, Asking the inconceivable, UC Irvine, Langson Library ,
Invited lecture (April 29, 2009)

How to teach Basic Web Search, class for Google.org, Nairobi, Kenya (via videoconference) (March 19, 2009)

Basic Web Search, Mountain View Public Library, Mountain View, CA (March 14, 2009)

Finding what you seek: How Google users think about search (and how they actually search), Harvard, Initiative for Innovative Computing (Feb 11, 2009)

Google Basic Search Skills, (closed class for Boulder Unified School District teachers), Boulder, CO
Become a Super Internet Searcher: Slides (Feb 3, 2009)

Large data sets change the way we think about HCI, HCIC Conference, Fraser, CO (Feb 6, 2009)

Advanced Google Search Skills, Santa Clara City Library (Feb 3, 2009)

Become a Super Internet Searcher Slides for RAFT Google Basic Search Skills, RAFT, San Jose, CA (Jan 29, 2009)

(Re)Searching with Google: Looking for the core of expertise (PDF 4.7 Mb) A talk given at UCSF library in the Lange Room. Topics: searcher behavior, definition of expert search behavior, the 6 dimensions of search expertise, a few examples of skills that expert searchers have. San Francisco, CA (Nov 7, 2008). The video for this talk can be seen here.

Google Earth class Google Earth Class, RAFT, San Jose, CA (Oct 2, 2008) (July 24, 2008)

Search Strategies and Tactics: Internet search for teachers. (PPT 6.0 Mb) A 90 minute hands-on tutorial on search intended for teachers. Covers keyword choice, query refinement, other kinds of media, advanced operators (minus, site:, link:), credibility assessment. Presented at Google, Mountain View, CA (Sept 10, 2008)

Library Internet Search Skills presentation (PDF 3.5Mb) Basics of Internet Search. A hands-on class I give at Bay Area libraries, schools, etc. (2008)

Advanced Search Techniques (PDF 5.6Mb) How to be a super internet searcher--advanced. Presented at NASA Ames. (April 16, 2008)

How humans behave under high task interruption loads (PDF 1.1Mb) Presentation at FOO Camp in Sebastopol, CA
(June 23, 2007) session on human attention, with Kathy Sierra and Linda Stone

Searching for the mind of the searcher (PDF 2.3Mb) Slides from my keynote at the Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL) (June 20, 2007)

Video Content

Recently, we've started making videos explaining how search works. These four are w/ Sal Khan at KhanAcademy
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0kGEP-0Ttw -- Khan Academy--“Search by Image” (5 mins)
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG9hjtAXufg -- Khan Academy -- "Recycling in Mumbai" (8 mins)
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m7j-JCW8wU – Khan Academy -- “Finding the shortest president” (4 mins)
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGQIniksGlo – Khan Academy “Population growth rate of India
and the US” (12 mins)
We're doing others as well. Here are a few:

Google Query Formulation (Dan talking with Udi Manber)

How to use Google Scholar More Effectively (1/6/12)

Google Search Results Page Overview (1/20/12) -- how the results page is organized

Classes Content for Classes I Teach

I often teach classes on how to use Google more effectively. (Google is easy to use now; but with a few tips, you can REALLY improve you ability to find things.)

These are the materials I use. If you're a teacher and want to re-use some of these materials, feel free! You might drop me a line to let me know what you're doing, but really, use with abandon!

Basic class: Become a Super Internet Searcher: Slides (PDF, 3.5Mb; covers basic web architecture and basic search techniques)

Intermediate class: Intermediate Internet Search Skills (PDF; covers topics between basic and advanced!)

Advanced class: Advanced Search Techniques: Slides (PDF, 5.6Mb; has a good problem set; research literacy; overview of different Google content types; assessing web page credibility)

Practicum class:  Practicum for search for teachers... (PDF, 2.6Mb; advanced problem set; review of CSEs, Alerts, search web history, Toolbar)

Teacher's class: Search Strategies and Tactics: Internet search for teachers.    (PPT 6.0 Mb; A 2 hour hands-on tutorial on search intended for teachers. Covers keyword choice, query refinement, other kinds of media, advanced operators (minus, site:, link:), credibility assessment. All in 2 hours. Whew!)

Web Credibility: How do you learn to tell if something is credible or not on the web? Web Credibility (PDF 3.1Mb; a 2 hour hands-on class for teachers).

Search for Librarians: Top 12 Things You Need to Know
   (PDF, 3.4Mb; covers 12 short lessons on different methods for search. 1 hour class. Posted: October 14, 2009)

Advanced search: Advanced Internet Search, Santa Clara City Library (Santa Clara) (Oct 17, 2008)

Advanced search for librarians: Advanced Search for Librarians, AKLA (Anchorage, AK) (Mar 6, 2010)

If you're attending one of classes at RAFT, please fill out this form... Click here to fill out the form

Essays

Running the Boston Marathon (1993) Running a marathon isn't just about pain,
but it makes a different way of seeing the world

Trip report from CSCW 2006 (2006) My thoughts about the conference (PDF 3.5Mb)

Diving the Channel Islands (1997) Diving the Channel islands as ecstatic experience

Visiting Falling Water (1998) Seeing Frank Lloyd Wright's house for the first time

Life dot plots (2006) (2006) A simple visualization of your life--one day = 1 dot. It all fits on 1 slide.

A paen to making applesauce (1986) Simple food, simple task, a revelation.

Green lines on the land (2009) How trees persist in the landscape

Book Recommendations

I seem to have become the scribe for irregularly scheduled book club meetings. Here are the last few times I've sat down with good friends in a nice restaurant and we've talked about books.

HI CSS Book Club Recommendations 2005 (Kona, Hawaii)

HICSS Book Club Recommendations 2006 (Poipu Hawai'i)

HICSS Book Club Recommendations 2007 (Kona, Hawai'i)

HCIC Book Club Recommendations 2007 (Tabernash, CO)

INTERACT Book Club Recommendations 2007 (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Tahoe Offsite Book Recommendations 2008 (Tahoe, Nevada)

HICSS Book Club Recommendations 2009 (Kona, Hawai'i)

Tahoe Offsite Book Recommendations 2009 (Tahoe, Nevada)
HCIC Book Club Recommendations 2009 (Tabernash, CO)
HCIC Book Club Recommendations 2010 (Tabernash, CO)

Recent & Interesting Papers

Moraveji, N., Russell, D. M., Mease, D. “Measuring improvement in user search performance resulting from optimal search tips” Proceedings of SIGIR 2011, Beijing, China (July, 2011)

Dumais, S., Jeffries, R., Russell, D. M., Tang, D., Teevan, J. “Large-scale logs analysis tutorial” SIGCHI full-day workshop, CHI 2011, Vancouver, B.C, Canada. (May, 2011)

Editor for pecial issue of Universal Access in the Information Society (a Springer journal) I put together this special issue as a Festschrift for Norbert Streitz. To be printed August 2012, while the papers are all available now on Open Online. See the complete table-of-contents for the special issue.

Co-editor Peter Pirolli, special issue on “Sensemaking” Human-Computer Interaction Journal, vol. 26, n. 1 & 2 (April, 2011)

Pirolli, P. Russell, D. M. “Introduction to this special issue on sensemaking” Human-Computer Interaction Journal, v 26, n 1 & 2, p 1 – 8 (April, 2011)

Russell, D. M. “Making the most of online searches” APS Observer, v 24, n 4 (April, 2011) also available as: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2011/april-11/making-the-most-of-online-searches.html

Ma, L., Mease, D., Russell, D. M. “A Four Group Cross-Over Design for Measuring Irreversible Treatments on Web Search Tasks” Proceedings of Hawai’i International Conference on Systems Sciences (HICSS) 2011, Kauai, HI.

Russell, D. M., Oren, M. Retrospective Cued Recall: A method for accurately recalling previous user behaviors, HICSS conference, Hawai’i (January, 2009) PDF

Beymer, D., Russell, D. M., Orton, P.Z. An Eye Tracking Study of How Pictures Influence Online Reading, INTERACT Conference, Rio de Janerio, Brazil (September, 2007) PDF-515Kb

Grimes, C., Tang, D., Russell, D. M. Query logs alone are not enough WWW 2007, Workshop on Query Logs Analysis: Social and Technological Challenges, Banff, Canada (May, 2007) PDF-288Kb

Lam, H., Russell, D. M., Tang, D.,Munzner, T., “Session Viewer: supporting visual exploratory analysis of web session logs” VAST-2007, Sacramento, CA. (October, 2007)

Orton, P. Z., Beymer, D., Russell, D. M., “Computer text line lengths affect reading and learning” Training and Development Journal (2007)

Russell, D. M., Grimes, C. Assigned and self-chosen tasks are not the same in web search Proceedings of the 40th Annual International Conference on Systems & Software, HICSS 2007, Kona, Hawai’i, (Jan, 2007)

Russell, D. M., Card, S., Pirolli, P., Stefik, M. The cost structure of sensemaking, Proc. of CHI 1993 (1993) (PDF h237Kb)

Older, Archival Works

CHI 2009 Workshop on Sensemaking Here's the description of the sensemaking workshop Peter Pirolli and I ran in April, 2009. A list of the accepted papers can be found on the Accepted Papers for CHI 2009 Workshop on Sensemaking page.

CHI 2008 Workshop on Sensemaking Workshop for the CHI conference 2008 on the topic of Sensemaking. Official CHI 2008 Sensemaking Workshop Page You can go there to see the papers we accepted. (We had a 50% acceptance rate!) (April 6, 2008)

HICSS 2007 Workshop: I co-chaired a minitrack for HICSS 2007 with Jonathan Grudin. Here's the CFP:
HICSS 40 CFP for New Information Technology: Ways & Means

In 2008 and 2009, Fernanda Viegas and Karrie Karahalios ran this minitrack.
HCISS 41 Minitrack on "Social Spaces: Production and consumption of good in digital collectives"

Last edit: April 11, 2012