Towards Information Retrieval Measures for Evaluation of Web Search Engines
Jacek Gwizdka, Mark Chignell · 1999
Information retrieval on the Web is very different from retrieval in traditional indexed databases. This difference arises from: the high degree of dynamism of the Web; its hyper-linked character; the absence of a controlled indexing vocabulary; the heterogeneity of document types and authoring styles; the easy access that different types of users may have to it. Thus, since Web retrieval is substantially different from information retrieval, new or revised evaluative measures are required to assess retrieval performance using Web search engines. This paper suggests a number of different measures to evaluate information retrieval from the Web. The motivation behind each of these measures is presented, along with their descriptions and definitions. In the second part of the paper, application of these measures is illustrated in the evaluation of three search engines. The purpose of this paper is not to give the definite prescription for evaluating information retrieval from the Web, but rather to present some examples and to initiate a wider discussion of how to enhance measures of Web search performance.