On the Precision of Search Engines: Results from a Controlled Experiment

Abstract

Handling the growing amount of digital information is one of the major challenges when dealing with the World Wide Web (WWW). In particular, users crave for an effective and efficient retrieval of needed information. In this context, search engines adopt a key role. Besides conventional search engines such as Google, semantic search engines have emerged as an alternative approach in recent years. The quality of search results delivered by search engines is in influenced by many criteria. This paper picks up one specific issue, the precision, and investigates and compares the precision of current both conventional (i.e., non-semantic) and semantic search engines based on a controlled experiment with 77 participants. Specifically, Google, AltaVista, MetaGer, Hakia, Kngine, and WolframAlpha are investigated and compared.