article

How are we searching the world wide web?: a comparison of nine search engine transaction logs

Authors:

Bernard J. Jansen,

Amanda SpinkAuthors Info & Claims

Information Processing and Management: an International Journal, Volume 42, Issue 1

Pages 248 - 263

Published: 01 January 2006 Publication History

Abstract

The Web and especially major Web search engines are essential tools in the quest to locate online information for many people. This paper reports results from research that examines characteristics and changes in Web searching from nine studies of five Web search engines based in the US and Europe. We compare interactions occurring between users and Web search engines from the perspectives of session length, query length, query complexity, and content viewed among the Web search engines. The results of our research shows (1) users are viewing fewer result pages, (2) searchers on US-based Web search engines use more query operators than searchers on European-based search engines, (3) there are statistically significant differences in the use of Boolean operators and result pages viewed, and (4) one cannot necessary apply results from studies of one particular Web search engine to another Web search engine. The wide spread use of Web search engines, employment of simple queries, and decreased viewing of result pages may have resulted from algorithmic enhancements by Web search engine companies. We discuss the implications of the findings for the development of Web search engines and design of online content.

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Index Terms

How are we searching the world wide web?: a comparison of nine search engine transaction logs
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing
2. Information systems
  1. Information retrieval
    1. Evaluation of retrieval results
    2. Information retrieval query processing
  2. Information storage systems
    1. Storage architectures
      1. Storage network architectures

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cover image Information Processing and Management: an International Journal

Information Processing and Management: an International Journal Volume 42, Issue 1

Special issue: Formal methods for information retrieval

January 2006

422 pages

ISSN:0306-4573

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Pergamon Press, Inc.

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 January 2006

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.4018/JGIM.2020070108
(2018)Cross-lingual analysis of English and Chinese web searchInternational Journal of Web and Grid Services10.5555/3292946.329294914:4(376-399)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2018
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Kacprzak EKoesten LTennison JSimperl EChampin PGandon FMédini LLalmas MIpeirotis P(2018)Characterising Dataset Search QueriesCompanion Proceedings of the The Web Conference 201810.1145/3184558.3191597(1485-1488)Online publication date: 23-Apr-2018
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