Do your friends make you smarter?: An analysis of social strategies in online information seeking

• Published in: Information processing & management Vol. 46; no. 6; pp. 679 - 692
• Main Authors: Evans, Brynn M., Kairam, Sanjay, Pirolli, Peter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2010; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Channels; Cognitive task analysis; Collaboration; Data processing; Friendship; Information processing; On-line systems; Online; Question–answering; Search process; Searches; Searching; Social information seeking; Social interaction; Social networks; Social search; Studies; Tasks; User behavior; Verbal protocols; Social search; Social information seeking; Verbal protocols; Question–answering; Information processing; Cognitive task analysis

Prior research in the social search space has focused on the informational benefits of collaborating with others during web and workplace information seeking. However, social interactions, especially during complex tasks, can have cognitive benefits as well. Our goal in this paper is to document the...