Topic and Goal

Log data constitute a relevant aspect in the evaluation process of the quality of a search engine and the quality of a multilingual search service; log data can be used to study the usage of a search engine, and to better adapt it to the objectives the users were expecting to reach. Research on log files is an area with obstacles. Most search services, especially large search engines do exploit their search logs but do not grant public access to them. A standard evaluation resource will make systems comparable and make research more transparent. More groups who do currently not have access to real world log files can work in the field of log file analysis.

The research goal of LogCLEF is the analysis and classification of queries, the definition of success of a search in order to understand search behaviour in multilingual contexts.

Another important goal of LogCLEF is the creation of a community which includes groups from the information retrieval community and related areas such as data mining. To foster communication between these up to now largely separated groups, the creation of a standard evaluation resource is a first step.

The exchange of systems and components as well as the sharing of heterogeneous annotation of the logs needs to follow in order to advance the state of the art in this research area.