Googling for Software Development: What Developers Search For and What They Find (MSR 2021)
0 likes44 views
The document analyzes software developers' search behaviors and resources, revealing that they spend around 20% of their time on the web searching for software-related information. It highlights key findings such as developers using concise queries focusing on technologies, and Google primarily sourcing results from platforms like Stack Overflow and YouTube. Additionally, minor changes to search queries typically do not significantly affect the top search results, indicating stable patterns in how software resources are retrieved.
![Over 85% of
their tra
ffi
c
come from
web search
engines
[alexa.com]
Stack Over
fl
ow
50Musers/month
W3Schools
2.5Bpageviews/year
6](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/msr2021-googling-240725130414-7ead41d9/85/Googling-for-Software-Development-What-Developers-Search-For-and-What-They-Find-MSR-2021-6-320.jpg)
Googling for Software Development: What Developers Search For and What They Find (MSR 2021)
- 1. Googling for Software Development: What Developers Search For and What They Find MSR 2021 Andre Hora
- 2. Developers often search for software resources on the web 2
- 3. Developers often search for software resources on the web They may spend ~20% of their time on the web 3
- 6. Over 85% of their tra ffi c come from web search engines [alexa.com] Stack Over fl ow 50Musers/month W3Schools 2.5Bpageviews/year 6
- 7. 7
- 8. 8
- 9. 9
- 10. What do developers search for and what they fi nd? 10
- 12. Search Queries Search Results 12
- 13. Search Queries Search Results Understand real-world search queries and developers’ needs Detect where search engines fi nd software resources and explore the results 13
- 14. Study Design
- 15. 1. stackover fl ow.com 2. w3schools.com 3. geeksforgeeks.org 4. tutorialspoint.com 5. programcreek.com Selecting the Websites 15 1
- 16. 1. stackover fl ow.com 2. w3schools.com 3. geeksforgeeks.org 4. tutorialspoint.com 5. programcreek.com Selecting the Websites Collecting the Search Queries 16 1 2 1.3M distinct queries
- 17. 1. stackover fl ow.com 2. w3schools.com 3. geeksforgeeks.org 4. tutorialspoint.com 5. programcreek.com Selecting the Websites Collecting the Search Queries 17 1 2 What Developers Search For 3 1.3M distinct queries • RQ1: Query content • RQ2: Query size & keywords • RQ3: Query structure • RQ4: Query similarity
- 18. 1. stackover fl ow.com 2. w3schools.com 3. geeksforgeeks.org 4. tutorialspoint.com 5. programcreek.com Selecting the Websites Collecting the Search Queries 18 1 2 What Developers Search For 3 What Developers Find 4 • RQ1: Query content • RQ2: Query size & keywords • RQ3: Query structure • RQ4: Query similarity • RQ5: Result resources • RQ6: Result variation 1.3M distinct queries Search API
- 19. Results
- 21. RQ1 What is the content of the search queries? 21
- 22. RQ1 What is the content of the search queries? 22
- 23. RQ1 What is the content of the search queries? 23
- 24. RQ1 What is the content of the search queries? 24 Developers’ queries typically provide references to technologies, such as programming languages (30%), software technologies (24.5%), and web frameworks (5%)
- 25. RQ2 Query Size & Keywords
- 26. RQ2 What is the size of the search queries? Where are the keywords located? 26 Size Keyword position 49.2 65.2 48.7 3
- 27. RQ2 What is the size of the search queries? Where are the keywords located? 27 Size Keyword position 49.2 65.2 48.7 3 Developers’ queries are short: 3 words, on the median. Keywords are more likely to be the fi rst than the last word in the query
- 29. 29 As in general web search, developers also tend to exclude function words in their queries, which are mostly composed of content words (80.3%). Most of the developers’ queries are similar among each other: while 40% have no similar counterpart, 60% have at least one similar peer. 8% have 10 or more similar ones. RQ3 RQ4
- 31. RQ5 Where does Google fi nd software resources? 31
- 32. RQ5 Where does Google fi nd software resources? 32 Google fi nds software resources mostly on Stack Over fl ow (11%), YouTube (6%), and W3Schools (5%). However, the results may vary according to query (keyword or general).
- 34. RQ6: How do Google results vary for similar queries? 34
- 35. RQ6: How do Google results vary for similar queries? 35 1 2 3 4
- 36. RQ6: How do Google results vary for similar queries? 36 1 2 3 4 Word swap Query 1: python email parser Query 2: email parser python
- 37. RQ6: How do Google results vary for similar queries? 37 1 2 3 4 Word swap Query 1: python email parser Query 2: email parser python Word removal Query 1: python email parser Query 2: email parser
- 38. RQ6: How do Google results vary for similar queries? 38 1 2 3 4 Word swap Query 1: python email parser Query 2: email parser python Word removal Query 1: python email parser Query 2: email parser Synonymous word Query 1: python email parser Query 2: py email parser
- 39. RQ6: How do Google results vary for similar queries? 39
- 40. RQ6: How do Google results vary for similar queries? 40 The links and order of the top 10 Google search results are very likely to change due to similar queries, whereas the top 1 is much less affected. However, overall, the intersection of links due to similar queries is high, at least 70% in most cases.
- 41. 1. Developers’ queries are likely to include key contexts (e.g., technologies) 2. Developers’ queries share characteristics with general ones: both are short and tend to omit function words 3. Google fi nds software resources mostly on Stack Over fl ow (11%) with an over- concentration in the top 1 results (28%) 4. YouTube is a prominent source for Google (mostly top 3 results of general queries) 5. Performing minor changes to queries do not broadly a ff ect the top 1 search results nor the overall top 10 (however, there are exceptions!) Takeaways
- 42. Googling for Software Development: What Developers Search For and What They Find MSR 2021 Andre Hora