Serendipity is not Bullshit

Serendipity in the context of information-seeking and retrieval involves coming across information that is both useful and unexpected - either when looking for information on a different topic, when looking for information with no particular aim or when not looking for information at all. An article in The Stanford Daily newspaper, entitled ‘serendipity is bullshit,’ argues that there is little point in designing digital environments to support serendipity. We disagree. In this position paper, we respond to arguments made in the article and explain why it is very important that digital information environments should not only support users in seeking useful information, but also in encountering useful information unexpectedly