在現在網路普及的世界裡，數位化的資料正以大量且快速的方式累積，其資訊量已大至無法讓使用者逐一閱覽並過濾資料以滿足其搜尋意圖，因此造成了資訊過載的問題。而網頁搜尋引擎的問世和關鍵詞搜尋的方法則有效地解決了此情形，讓使用者多能夠在短時間內獲取自身想要的資訊。然而當使用者在搜尋自身不太了解的主題時，往往還是得花費大量的時間在過濾結果以及重新進行查詢上，此一過程被稱為探索式搜尋，且據前人研究指出這類的搜尋在所有搜尋行為中佔了大多數比例；而探索式搜尋之過程往往是不連續的、且每次搜尋結果內可能會充斥著許多雜訊，這種不連續的搜尋過程又可稱作跨期程的任務 (cross-session tasks)，而如何能夠自動辨識出跨期程間相關的搜尋任務，並且妥善地儲存和重複使用這些資料，將是一重要的研究課題。為此我們提出了一個系統架構與對應的資料處理流程，當使用者在進行探索式搜尋的同時，即能同步地收集其瀏覽歷程等相關資訊並加以分析，以供後續的使用者重複利用而更有效地簡化其搜尋過程；最後我們除了以實作出的原型系統請受試者實際使用以給予評估外，並將不同主題中所需花費之搜尋時間與直接使用搜尋引擎時加以比較，可驗證得知我們所提之系統普遍而言均能協助使用者較快速地完成探索式搜尋。

With the widespread of Internet, a massive amount of information is explosively accumulated in digital form today. It is almost impossible for users to review all of the information in details for satisfying their search intent. Such a problem of data overloading is then alleviated by search engines and the mechanism of keyword search. However, information seekers may still need much time to find out the useful information when they face unfamiliar topics. Specifically, much time can be spent on reformulating query terms and digesting the knowledge from search results. Such an information seeking process is called exploratory search that constitutes a large portion of web search activities. In addition, search tasks within the exploratory search process are usually cross-sessional, discontinuous and full of noises. Therefore, how to automatically recognize such exploratory search processes and reuse them is a crucial issue. In this work, we thus propose a prototype system to collect and reuse the corresponding information so as to facilitate the search process. Specifically, our system firstly distinguishes the search intent when a user starts his/her initial web search and when he/she reads the search results. To further help a user when he/she is starting an exploratory search, possible query terms are provided for him/her to conduct more search sessions whereas similar search patterns from other users are shown as a reference. Moreover, we devise improved user interfaces so that users can easily review their personal searching activities. Finally, we have several volunteer participants joining the experimental studies to test our prototype system. The time that participants spend on different topics when using our system and Google search engine is recorded. Experimental results show that our prototype system do help users to accomplish their exploratory search in a more efficient way.

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