The Effects of Query Bursts on Web Search

A query burst is a period of heightened interest of users on a topic which yields a higher frequency of the search queries related to it. In this paper we examine the behavior of search engine users during a query burst, compared to before and after this period. The purpose of this study is to get insights about how search engines and content providers should respond to a query burst. We analyze one year of web-search logs, looking at query bursts from two perspectives. First, we adopt the user´s perspective describing changes in user´s effort and interest while searching. Second, we look at the burst from the general content providers´ view, answering the question of under which conditions a content provider should ``ride´´ a wave of increased interest to obtain a significant share of clicks.