Jeff Huang
Brown University, Computer Science, Faculty Member
Abstract Web search components such as ranking and query suggestions analyze the user data provided in query and click logs. While this data is easy to collect and provides information about user behavior, it omits user interactions with... more
Abstract Web search components such as ranking and query suggestions analyze the user data provided in query and click logs. While this data is easy to collect and provides information about user behavior, it omits user interactions with the search engine that do not hit the server; these logs omit search data such as users' cursor movements. Just as clicks provide signals for relevance in search results, cursor hovering and scrolling can be additional implicit signals.
Abstract Past studies of user behavior in Web search have correlated eye-gaze and mouse cursor positions, and other lines of research have found cursor interactions to be useful in determining user intent and relevant parts of Web pages.... more
Abstract Past studies of user behavior in Web search have correlated eye-gaze and mouse cursor positions, and other lines of research have found cursor interactions to be useful in determining user intent and relevant parts of Web pages. However, cursor interactions are not all the same; different types of cursor behavior patterns exist, such as reading, hesitating, scrolling and clicking, each of which has a different meaning.
ABSTRACT Smartphones are convenient, but their small screens make searching, clicking, and reading awkward. Thus, perusing product reviews on a smartphone is difficult. In response, we introduce REVMINER—a novel smartphone interface that... more
ABSTRACT Smartphones are convenient, but their small screens make searching, clicking, and reading awkward. Thus, perusing product reviews on a smartphone is difficult. In response, we introduce REVMINER—a novel smartphone interface that utilizes Natural Language Processing techniques to analyze and navigate reviews.
Abstract Players can change the rules of a multi-person game to experience a different gameplay mechanic, add thematic color, or fine-tune its balance. To better understand game variants, we use a grounded approach to analyze 62 variants... more
Abstract Players can change the rules of a multi-person game to experience a different gameplay mechanic, add thematic color, or fine-tune its balance. To better understand game variants, we use a grounded approach to analyze 62 variants for Texas Hold'em, a popular card game, and a follow-up case-study of 91 variants of Halo 2, a popular video game. We study their development and examine whether lessons from Texas Hold'em apply to a constrained system such as Halo 2.
Short and common web queries are aptly supported by state-of-the-art search engines but performance and user experience are degraded when web queries are longer and less common. Extending previous solutions that automatically shorten... more
Short and common web queries are aptly supported by state-of-the-art search engines but performance and user experience are degraded when web queries are longer and less common. Extending previous solutions that automatically shorten queries, we introduce searchAssist: a novel search interface that provides interactive support for difficult web queries.