Some Empirical Research on the Performance of Internet Search Engines.
Wouter Mettrop, Nieuwenhujsen, Paul · Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), the national research institute for mathematics and computer science in the Netherlands · 1999
In this paper the IRT project {Internet/Inform ation Retrieval Tools) is described.The basic goal of IRT is to advise users of Internet search engines in retrieving information from the free public access part of the Internet.In achieving this, IRT has developed a model to evaluate search engines.This model is d&scribed in here.Evaluation criteria refer to functionality: search options, presentation characteristics and indexing characteristics (which elements of a Web docu• ment are indexed?).Also evaluated is the consistency of retrieval through search engines.This model has been tested in the period October• December 1998 on six of the major search engines.We found many differences among Internet in-.dexes in their functionality, as well as in their consistency and reliability. Introduc tionSince March 1997 a project is running, named IRT (INTERNET/IN FORMATION RE-TRIEVAL TOOLS) in which 11 information professionals are involved (see their names below).The main goal is to assist users of Internet search engines in retrieving information from the World Wide Web (WWW).