Dear Participant, Thank you for agreeing to participate in this landmark research study, entitled "Linguistic Modeling of Internet Search Query Patterns." This is a brief description of the study and the part you play. As the internet grows, it becomes increasingly important to improve our methods of retrieving relevant information on the web. This study looks at the effectiveness of one of the most popular commercial search engines, Google.com™. Because this study is search engine dependant, it is asked that you have some experience with Google.com™ specifically. The information gathered in this survey may someday help search engine builders to better design the systems with which we interact on the web. When you click submit, you will be taken to a web survey which will ask several questions about your experience with computers, the internet and search engines. No personal information will be asked of you. If at any time you feel uncomfortable with this survey, you may exit by pressing "Back" on your browser and returning to this page. Your participation is strictly voluntary and you may quit at any time. Following the questions about your experience, you will be asked a series of research questions. For each example, rephrase the question as you would enter it in the search field of a search engine. For each example, try to be as specific as possible. It may be easiest to enter your search query in the Google.com™ search field and then copy and paste your question onto the survey field. You will also be asked how many search results were retrieved. This number is located at the upper right of the Google.com™ results screen, just beneath the search field. It should appear as 1-10 of (number of results retrieved). You are also asked to visit the first site listed on each query and determine whether the information on the page is pertinent. You may reset the Google.com™ page at any time by pressing the "Reset Google?" link on each question. Each research question will ask you to refine your search. You may do this as you see fit, but it must remain on the Google.com™ platform. The complete survey should take no more than 45 minutes, and you may quit at any time. Only fully completed surveys may be submitted. Only the researcher will have access to the raw data, and there is no attempt made to identify you in any way. You may feel free to check my source code, to see what data is being collected. For further questions, please e-mail me at qed2000@email.arizona.edu. Please address your email as: Survey question. Thank you for your time and participation. Sincerely, Bill Hornbaker