Context and action in search interfaces

While the web is often described in terms of access to information, it is also a place where people do things from booking hotel rooms, to completing their tax return. This paper outlines the ways in which search can form a part of a more action-based view of web interaction. The simplest is that search can be action that the user is performing to get information. However, search can also be used more computationally within an intelligent system that infers appropriate points to trigger interaction (loci of action) and constructs a model of the users context. The resulting picture is a rich interplay between user action and computation, where each inform and influence the other, and where search can form an intimate part both explicitly for the user and embedded within computation.