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The design of interfaces to facilitate user search has become critical for search engines, e-commerce sites, and intranets. The contribution of search tasks to the success of these applications has greatly increased as the volume of content has grown exponentially. Many companies' business models have been built around the customer's ability to explore extensive content. However, studies have shown that current search user interfaces do not adequately support most users' searching needs and the growth of content volume only increases these challenges. This study investigated the use of targeted instructional hints to improve search. Search hints are imbedded blocks of text that are presented to users immediately adjacent to the query input box and provide information to assist users in generating an effective query. Hints that presented semantic, syntactic, and exemplar help were created. Semantic help provides support for a conceptual model that helps users understand the inner workings of the system. Syntactic help provides support for the specific structure and grammatical rules required to input commands. Exemplar help provides examples and illustrations of correct use...