2,154 research outputs found
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
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
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
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
Image retrieval by hypertext links
This paper presents a model for retrieval of images from a large World Wide Web based collection. Rather than considering complex visual recognition algorithms, the model presented is based on combining evidence of the text content and hypertext structure of the Web. The paper shows that certain types of query are amply served by this form of representation. It also presents a novel means of gathering relevance judgements
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