Living in a visually rich environment, university students seek and con-sume information through videos to complete their academic tasks. This exploratory pilot study examines if and how students’ interaction with the YouTube search engine will generate particular search experiences and out-comes on their search tasks, and how native and non-native English-speaking students may interact with the search system and the videos. It aims to explore possible patterns in the search behaviors and experiences of the two groups. One general exploratory information task and the partici-pants’ self-selected academic-oriented tasks were used for this study, both of which have been observed and analyzed along with follow-up interviews. Initial patterns have been observed in their behaviors within the search en-gine on their academic-oriented tasks. Limitations and suggestions for fur-ther development of the design of the research are discussed
