Daniel Russell's Home Page



Dan-diving-in-Belize
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 T. Gruber, 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 


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.  (And then I post the answers on Thursday!)

  • 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. 

  • 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.) 

  • MOOC:  AdvancedPowerSearchingWithGoogle.com  A bunch of Googlers and I put together a MOOC on how to be a better searcher.  The first two times we offered the MOOC we had good success (> 250K students have registered for the class since we first offered it in July, 2012).  We last offered this class on  January 23, 2013.  Look for a return sometime in the summer of 2013.  

  • To receive announcements about future search-related classes, add yourself to the Search Education Google Groups mailing list


  • If you are specifically interested in search classes for K-12 education, join: https://groups.google.com/d/forum/google-search-education-k-12  On these lists we'll only send you a message when a new class is being offered.  Note that users can't post to these groups (only we can!), so you won't be sent random messages.  


Upcoming classes

  •  UPDATE:   sometime soon... really.  "Basic Power Searching with Google"  This is a repeat of our basic "Power Searching" MOOC.   This will run for 2 weeks, and be offered completely online as a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course).  There's a midterm and a final.  Pass both and you'll get a Google certificate of your power searching skills.      
  • 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 September, 2013.    
    Click Here to sign up for the NEXT CLASS notification.        


Upcoming  talks

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

"Powerful literacies:  Why & how knowledge vasty knowledge matters more than ever"  (PDF 36Mb)
      Google in Education--Napa Valley Institute, New Technology High School, Napa, CA.   (Jan 9, 2014)  

"What does it mean to be literate in the Age of Google?"
      ACTEM Conference (Maine Education Conference), Augusta, ME (October 11, 2013)
     (Recording of the talk podcast by Bob Sprackle)

"Digging In With Google"
       Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) conference, San Antonio, TX (June 22, 2013)   Tipsheet and slides.

Advanced Power Searching Skills for Business Journalists.  Arizona State University, Phoenix; AZ  (March 19, 2013) 
     Screencast version.  (50 mins TRT)      

Mindtools: What it means to be literate now...  Jan 8, 2013.  Google Apps for Education Summit, Honolulu, HI 

150K+ students per class:  What it takes to design, operate, and run a MOOC at scale  Nov 12, 2012. Future of Information Alliance presentation, Washington D.C. 

Advanced Google Search Techniques for Investigative Reporting  June 15, 2012.  Investigative Reporters and Editors conference, Boston, MA 

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.  

YouTube video of the talk.  1:12:09 TRT


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)  

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) 

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) 

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.

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)

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




VIdeo Content

1MM:  A "1MM" is a "1 Minute Morceau"  (or, in plural form, "morceaux").  These are very short videos that I've made to illustrate various points about search that keep coming up time and time again.  I've tried to make them short, interesting, insightful, and occasionally funny. Let me know what you think.  Here's a sample:  

Spelling Goodness (1MM #1) Nov 26, 2012.


And a longer list of them: 


____________

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

And even more recently, I recorded a Hangout-On-Air interview with Salman Khan about his book:

   Hangout Interview with Sal Khan  (10/17/12) 


Classes Content for Classes On Search

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!

Lesson plans for teaching search:  Search education lesson plans.  (16 different lessons on how to search--at beginning, intermediate and advanced levels of difficulty) 

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)

New Search Education Site:  Newer Google site for Search Education.  (1/1/2014)  


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.

HICSS 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)


Recent & Interesting Papers

Tunkelang, D., Capra, R., Golovchinsky, G., Kules, B., Russell, D. M., Smith, C.,  White, R., HCIR 2011: the Fifth International Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval, SIGIR Forum 45(2) (2012) 

Russell, D. M. “Ubiquitous search for smart workspaces” Universal Access in the Information Society, vol 10 n. 4, p 11-20 (2011) 

Russell, D. M. “The Streitz perspective: Computation is ubiquitous, yet must be designed for human use” Universal Access in the Information Society, vol 10, n. 4, p 4-10 (2011) 

Editor, special issue of Universal Access in the Information Society (UAIS), vol 10, n 4 (November, 2011) 

Druin, A., Gary Knell, Elliot Soloway, Daniel M. Russell, Elizabeth Mynatt, Yvonne Rogers, “The future of child-computer interaction” CHI EA 2011: Proceedings of the 2011 annual conference extended abstracts on human factors in computing systems, ACM, New York, NY, pp. 693-696

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 special 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: 

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)




Last edit:  Nov 28, 2013