Hourly Analysis of Navigational, Transactional and Informational User-Intents in Search Engine Queries

Abstract

Many studies have been undertaken to analyze the behaviors of those who use search engines. One such avenue for study is transaction log analysis (TLA). With literally billions of queries entered every year there is a plethora of data to be combed through and just as much information to be gleaned from them. This essay gathers queries submitted to a single search engine over a twenty-four hour period, evaluates and tags them to determine user intent according to a predefined rubric, and observes any hourly trends of user intent. Specifically, we look at user intent and how it may or may not fluctuate over the course of one business day, and address the implications of the finding for search engine development and further research.