18,506 research outputs found
New perspectives on Web search engine research
Purpose–The purpose of this chapter is to give an overview of the context of Web search and search engine-related research, as well as to introduce the reader to the sections and chapters of the book. Methodology/approach–We review literature dealing with various aspects of search engines, with special emphasis on emerging areas of Web searching, search engine evaluation going beyond traditional methods, and new perspectives on Webs earching. Findings–The approaches to studying Web search engines are manifold. Given the importance of Web search engines for knowledge acquisition, research from different perspectives needs to be integrated into a more cohesive perspective. Researchlimitations/implications–The chapter suggests a basis for research in the field and also introduces further research directions. Originality/valueofpaper–The chapter gives a concise overview of the topics dealt with in the book and also shows directions for researchers interested in Web search engines
Search engine user behaviour: How can users be guided to quality content?
The typical behaviour of the Web search engine user is widely known: a user only types in one or a few keywords
and expects the search engine to produce relevant results in an instant. Search engines not only adapt to this behaviour. On the
contrary, they are often faced with criticism that they themselves created this kind of behaviour. As search engines are trendsetters
for the whole information world, it is important to know how they cope with their users’ behaviour. Recent developments
show that search engines try to integrate results from different collections into their results lists and to guide their users to the
right results. These results should not only be relevant in general, but also be pertinent in the sense of being relevant to the user
in his current situation and in accordance to his background.
The article focuses on the problems of guiding the user from his initial query to these results. It shows how the general users
are searching and how the intents behind their queries can be used to deliver the right results. It will be shown that search
engines try to give some good results for everyone instead of focusing on complete result sets for a specific user type. If the
user wishes, he can follow the paths laid out by the engines to narrow the results to a result set suitable to him
Ordinary Search Engine Users Carrying Out Complex Search Tasks
Web search engines have become the dominant tools for finding information on
the Internet. Due to their popularity, users apply them to a wide range of
search needs, from simple look-ups to rather complex information tasks. This
paper presents the results of a study to investigate the characteristics of
these complex information needs in the context of Web search engines. The aim
of the study is to find out more about (1) what makes complex search tasks
distinct from simple tasks and if it is possible to find simple measures for
describing their complexity, (2) if search success for a task can be predicted
by means of unique measures, and (3) if successful searchers show a different
behavior than unsuccessful ones. The study includes 60 people who carried out a
set of 12 search tasks with current commercial search engines. Their behavior
was logged with the Search-Logger tool. The results confirm that complex tasks
show significantly different characteristics than simple tasks. Yet it seems to
be difficult to distinguish successful from unsuccessful search behaviors. Good
searchers can be differentiated from bad searchers by means of measurable
parameters. The implications of these findings for search engine vendors are
discussed.Comment: 60 page
Evaluating the retrieval effectiveness of Web search engines using a representative query sample
Search engine retrieval effectiveness studies are usually small-scale, using
only limited query samples. Furthermore, queries are selected by the
researchers. We address these issues by taking a random representative sample
of 1,000 informational and 1,000 navigational queries from a major German
search engine and comparing Google's and Bing's results based on this sample.
Jurors were found through crowdsourcing, data was collected using specialised
software, the Relevance Assessment Tool (RAT). We found that while Google
outperforms Bing in both query types, the difference in the performance for
informational queries was rather low. However, for navigational queries, Google
found the correct answer in 95.3 per cent of cases whereas Bing only found the
correct answer 76.6 per cent of the time. We conclude that search engine
performance on navigational queries is of great importance, as users in this
case can clearly identify queries that have returned correct results. So,
performance on this query type may contribute to explaining user satisfaction
with search engines
What Users See – Structures in Search Engine Results Pages
This paper investigates the composition of search engine results pages. We define what elements the most
popular web search engines use on their results pages (e.g., organic results, advertisements, shortcuts) and to
which degree they are used for popular vs. rare queries. Therefore, we send 500 queries of both types to the
major search engines Google, Yahoo, Live.com and Ask. We count how often the different elements are used by
the individual engines. In total, our study is based on 42,758 elements. Findings include that search engines use
quite different approaches to results pages composition and therefore, the user gets to see quite different results
sets depending on the search engine and search query used. Organic results still play the major role in the results
pages, but different shortcuts are of some importance, too. Regarding the frequency of certain host within the
results sets, we find that all search engines show Wikipedia results quite often, while other hosts shown depend
on the search engine used. Both Google and Yahoo prefer results from their own offerings (such as YouTube or
Yahoo Answers). Since we used the .com interfaces of the search engines, results may not be valid for other
country-specific interfaces
Using Search Engine Technology to Improve Library Catalogs
This chapter outlines how search engine technology can be used in online public access library
catalogs (OPACs) to help improve users’ experiences, to identify users’ intentions, and to indicate
how it can be applied in the library context, along with how sophisticated ranking criteria can be
applied to the online library catalog. A review of the literature and current OPAC developments
form the basis of recommendations on how to improve OPACs. Findings were that the major
shortcomings of current OPACs are that they are not sufficiently user-centered and that their results
presentations lack sophistication. Further, these shortcomings are not addressed in current 2.0
developments. It is argued that OPAC development should be made search-centered before
additional features are applied. While the recommendations on ranking functionality and the use of
user intentions are only conceptual and not yet applied to a library catalogue, practitioners will find
recommendations for developing better OPACs in this chapter. In short, readers will find a
systematic view on how the search engines’ strengths can be applied to improving libraries’ online
catalogs
The Influence of Commercial Intent of Search Results on Their Perceived Relevance
We carried out a retrieval effectiveness test on the three major web search engines (i.e., Google, Microsoft and Yahoo). In addition to relevance judgments, we classified the results according to their commercial intent and whether or not they carried any advertising. We found that all search engines provide a large number of results with a commercial intent. Google provides significantly more commercial results than the other search engines do. However, the commercial intent of a result did not influence jurors in their relevance judgments
The Virtual Location of E-Tailers: Evidence from a B2C E-Commerce Market
An Internet retailer?s (e-tailer?s) outstanding virtual location enhances the probability of being noticed by potential customers. The notion of a virtual location for e-tailers refers to the analogy to the physical location. In the empirical analysis, an e-tailer?s Internet search engine rank as well as its advertising activities in search engines serve as proxies for the virtual location. The results suggest that it is optimal for e-tailers to complement a high search engine rank with investments in online advertising. Moreover, banner ads seem to serve as price advertising mechanism, whereas sponsored links rather seem to be used in order to signal outstanding customer service. --virtual location,online advertising,search engines
CHORUS Deliverable 2.2: Second report - identification of multi-disciplinary key issues for gap analysis toward EU multimedia search engines roadmap
After addressing the state-of-the-art during the first year of Chorus and establishing the existing landscape in
multimedia search engines, we have identified and analyzed gaps within European research effort during our second year.
In this period we focused on three directions, notably technological issues, user-centred issues and use-cases and socio-
economic and legal aspects. These were assessed by two central studies: firstly, a concerted vision of functional breakdown
of generic multimedia search engine, and secondly, a representative use-cases descriptions with the related discussion on
requirement for technological challenges. Both studies have been carried out in cooperation and consultation with the
community at large through EC concertation meetings (multimedia search engines cluster), several meetings with our
Think-Tank, presentations in international conferences, and surveys addressed to EU projects coordinators as well as
National initiatives coordinators. Based on the obtained feedback we identified two types of gaps, namely core
technological gaps that involve research challenges, and “enablers”, which are not necessarily technical research
challenges, but have impact on innovation progress. New socio-economic trends are presented as well as emerging legal
challenges
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