A study of query length

We analyse query length, and fit power-law and Poisson distributions to four different query sets. We provide a practical model for query length, based on the truncation of a Poisson distribution for short queries and a power-law distribution for longer queries, that better fits real query length distributions than earlier proposals. Categories and Subject Descriptors: H.3 [Information Storage and Retrieval]: H.3.3 Information Search and Retrieval; H.3.7 Digital Libraries General Terms: Measurement, Experimentation, Theory

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: SIGIR
• Authors: Avi Arampatzis, Jaap Kamps
• Keywords: Information Technology, Poisson Distribution, Query Length, Query Length Distributions, SIGIR 2008