Students use search services quite a bit in everyday life, "many searches involve decision–making to resolve a specific problem with real–life consequences," and for them, like me, "the process of filtering relevant from non–relevant search results was reportedly the most difficult part of everyday life research." This is one of the results from a largish survey of American university students (the most surveyed - and least representative - population on the planet). More interesting is what they searched for. "Participants discussed searching for information to (1) satisfy curiosity, (2) find a fact quickly, and (3) solve a specific information problem... Could a recent tick bite cause Lyme disease? What news is being reported in the hometown newspaper? What does a diagnosis of breast cancer mean for the patient? What is the starting salary for civil engineers? What are the values of a certain religious group?" See also behavior of college students concerning Wikipedia by Sook Lim and Christine Simon, and more from the current issue of First Monday.
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