Voice Search and Typed Search Performance Comparison on Baidu Search System
This is an incremental study addressing usability issues in voice search for Chinese users, but it lacks definitive results.
This pilot study compared the search performance of voice versus typed search on Baidu among 40 Chinese students, analyzing 8 participants' behaviors and query lengths, but found high variability and insufficient data for firm conclusions.
Although the voice search system is getting more and more developed, some people still have difficulties when searching for information with the voice search system. This paper is a pilot study to compare the search performance of people using voice search and typed search using Baidu search system. We surveyed and interviewed 40 Chinese students who have been using the Baidu search system. Afterward, we analyzed 8 people who had a middle to advanced searching ability by their behaviors, search results, and average query length. We found that there are a lot of variations among the participants' time when searching for different queries, and there were some interesting behaviors that were displayed by a number of participants. We conclude that more participants are needed to make a firm conclusion on the performance comparison between the voice search and typed search.