This paper presents a user survey-based analysis of the correlation between the users' willingness to personalize Web search and their social network usage patterns. The participants' responses to the survey questions enabled us to use a regression model for identifying the relationship between SNS variables and willingness to personalize Web search; the obtained results show that there is a strong relationship between willingness for personalized Web search and social network usage patterns.

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Predictors of Users' Willingness
to Personalize Web Search
Arjumand Younus
Joint PhD Candidate @ National University of Ireland, Galway and
University of Milano­Bicocca, Italy
Colm O'Riordan
National University of Ireland, Galway
Gabriella Pasi
University of Milano­Bicocca, Italy

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Outline
1.Introduction: Privacy concerns with personalized web
search
2.Proposed analysis for users willing to personalize web
search
1. Methodology
3. Study Results
1.Prediction model for web search personalization willingness
4.Future Work
5.Conclusions

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1. Introduction: What are
the Concerns Regarding
Web Search
Personalization?

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Concerns with web search personalization
Personalized Web search has emerged as a
promising solution to improve the search quality.
However, privacy remains a big concern
iGoogle shutting down in November, 2013
Why are users concerned about privacy with
Web search personalization?
Accumulation of search history: query logs,
clickthrough data etc.

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New form of interaction on the web
“Web users now on Facebook longer than Google”
CNN, September 2010

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The value of new form of data
Social data is being exploited as a new means for Web search
personalization
Bookmarks
Facebook status updates
Tweets

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The value of new form of data
Social data is being exploited as a new means for Web search
personalization
Bookmarks
Facebook status updates
Tweets
This however does not solve the privacy concern

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2. Proposed Direction for Analysis of
Users Willing to Personalize Web
Search

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Correlation between social network usage
patterns and web search personalization
willingness
We investigate if the social network usage
patterns can provide an indication of Web search
personalization willingness
Consider user A highly active on social networks
communicating thoughts on range of topics
Consider user B less active sharing thoughts on
limited topics

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Correlation between social network usage
patterns and web search personalization
willingness
We investigate if the social network usage
patterns can provide an indication of Web search
personalization willingness
Consider user A highly active on social networks
communicating thoughts on range of topics
Consider user B less active sharing thoughts on
limited topics
It would be interesting to investigate correlations of
behaviors of users A and B and their openness to Web
search personalization

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2.1. Methodology

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User survey methodology
Design of a user survey to investigate
Social network usage patterns of users
Privacy concerns users have with respect to Web
search personalization
Various SNS tools investigated in detail along with
different characteristics of SNS usage
Large-scale user survey in two parts
First part: 380 respondents from various countries
Second part: 113 respondents from various countries

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Information about survey
respondents (1/2)
Gender N (%)
Male 235 (61.8%)
Female 145 (38.2%)
Location N (%)
Europe 206 (54.2%)
America 21 (5.5%)
Asia 153 (40.3%)
Age N (%)
10-20 0 (0%)
21-30 259 (68.2%)
31-40 87 (22.9%)
41-50 19 (5%)
Above 50 15 (3.9%)

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Information about survey
respondents (2/2)
SNS Tool Details N (%)
Facebook Presence 356 (93.7%)
Twitter Presence 241 (63.4%)
Google+ Presence 239 (62.9%)
LinkedIn Presence 272 (71.6%)
Bookmarking Sites
Presence
60 (15.8%)
SNS Usage Details N (%)
Facebook as Most
Used
325 (85.5%)
Twitter as Most
Used
106 (27.9%)
Google+ as Most
Used
30 (7.9%)
LinkedIn as Most
Used
17 (4.5%)

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Measures and variables
investigated (1/4)
Personalized Web Search Results Considered as
Useful
N (%)
Yes
No
188 (49.5%)
192 (50.5%)
Awareness about Personalization Feature of Web
Search Engines
N (%)
Yes
No
275 (72.4%)
105 (27.6%)
Awareness about Web Search Engines using Search
History Data
N (%)
Yes
No
337 (88.7%)
43 (11.3%)
Comfortable with Web Search Engines using Search
History Data
N (%)
Yes
No
196 (51.6%)
184 (48.4%)

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Measures and variables
investigated (2/4)
Frequency of Posting on Facebook MEAN (SD)
Yes
No
2.99 (0.95)
Frequency of Facebook Likes MEAN (SD)
Yes
No
3.22 (0.94)
No. of Facebook Friends N (%)
Less than 100
100 – 200
200 – 300
300 – 400
400 – 500
More than 500
62 (17.4%)
88 (24.7%)
85 (23.9%)
50 (14.0%)
28 (7.9%)
43 (12.1%)

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Measures and variables
investigated (3/4)
Survey respondents who used Twitter asked to provide
Twitter handle through which we extracted
Number of mentions
Number of retweets
Number of topics in tweets of survey respondents

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Measures and variables
investigated (4/4)
Ever Used Social Networks for Information-Seeking N (%)
Yes
No
272 (71.6%)
108 (28.4%)
Q&A Activity on Social Networks Considered as
Useful
N (%)
Yes
No
187 (49.2%)
193 (50.8%)
Frequency of Asking Questions on SNS MEAN (SD)
1.99 (0.95)
Frequency of Considering Answers on SNS More
Reliable than Search Engines
MEAN (SD)
2.38 (1.03)

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3. Study Results

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Analysis of personalization
willingness (1/6)
WP AP AH WH
Male 1.635** 2.643** 6.318*** 1.480*
American 0.001 0.004 4.478 0.002
Asian 0.001 0.003 0.004 0.001
European 0.001 0.004 0.001 0.001
Age 1.069 0.997 0.981 0.841
Note *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001
WP: Willingness for Web search
personalization
AP: Awareness of personalization
feature in Web search engines
AH: Awareness of fact that search
engines use search history data
for personalization
WH: Comfort level with fact that
search engines use search history
data for personalization

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Analysis of personalization
willingness (2/6)
WP AP AH WH
Facebook
Presence
0.982 0.561 0.860 1.844
Twitter
Presence
1.544* 1.692 3.651*** 1.519*
Google+
Presence
1.816*** 1.427 1.364 1.626**
LinkedIn
Presence
0.940 2.475* 2.031** 1.150
Bookmarking
Sites Presence
1.289 2.535 1.153 1.771**
Note *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001

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Analysis of personalization
willingness (3/6)
WP AP AH WH
High Usage of
Facebook
1.599 0.736 0.488 1.222
High Usage of
Twitter
1.166* 1.574 3.986** 1.353
High Usage of
Google+
3.042*** 1.565 0.637 2.292**
High Usage of
LinkedIn
1.193 2.069 1.127 0.971
Note *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001

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Analysis of personalization
willingness (4/6)
WP AP AH WH
Facebook
Usage
Frequency
0.898 1.204 1.051 1.231
Facebook
Posting
Frequency
1.637*** 0.450* 0.893 1.246
Facebook
Liking
Frequency
0.920 1.776 0.922 0.924
No. of
Facebook
Friends
0.873* 1.031 1.181 0.899
Note *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001

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Analysis of personalization
willingness (5/6)
WP AP AH WH
Twitter
Mentions
1.000 0.983 0.997 0.998*
Twitter
Retweets
1.001 0.982 0.999 0.999
No. of Topics
in Tweets
0.997 0.969 1.036 1.012
No. of Tweets 0.999 1.015* 1.001 1.001*
Note *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001

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Analysis of personalization
willingness (6/6)
WP AP AH WH
Prefers Q&A Activity on SNS 1.000 0.983 0.997 0.998*
Considers Q&A Activity on
SNS Useful
1.001 0.982 0.999 0.999
Frequency of Q&A Activity
on SNS
0.997 0.969 1.036 1.012
Frequency of Considering
Responses from SNS More
Useful than Search Engines
0.999 1.015* 1.001 1.001*
Note *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001

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3.1. Prediction Model for Web
Search Personalization Willingness

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Prediction model details
Goal
To see if prediction accuracy would be sufficient for a
real personalized Web search system
To explore the value of various types of information in
the process of automatically determining willingness for
Web search personalization
Second set of user survey data (113 respondents) used
as test data
Data collected in first phase (380 respondents) used as
training data
Support vector machines utilized for prediction model

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Prediction model results

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4. Future Work

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Implications
Users' privacy concerns are a significant challenge within
the domain of Web search personalization
We can use inferences from social network usage
patterns to address the question of when to personalize
and when not to personalize
This work serves as first step in direction of understanding
target audience of personalized search systems
We aim to incorporate more aspects of user dimensions
(via social traces left by users) in personalized search
algorithms

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5. Conclusions

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Summary
Utilized survey methodology to gather relevant data and
investigating correlations between users' social network
usage patterns and their openness to opt for Web search
personalization
SNS features such as user's presence/absence and
amount of usage activity on particular social networking
platforms along with his Q&A activity on social networks
provide valuable insights
Significant implications for design of future personalized
search and social search applications

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Thanks for your attention!
Questions?
Arjumand Younus
Email: arjumand.younus@nuigalway.ie
Twitter: @ArjumandYounus