What the Search Engines are up to Now: same ingredients different recipes Karen Blakeman RBA...

What the Search Engines are up to Now:same ingredients different recipes

Karen Blakeman

RBA Information Services, UK

10 April 2023 1Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk

Internet Librarian International

Searching is not quite like cooking

Cooking– same ingredients + same recipe = same dish

BUT: Searching

– same search terms + same search engine ≠ same results

Search engines have many, many chefs (servers) cooking to their own recipes and varying according to country and intended customer base

Add to the Internet/Web search mix:– Desktop search– Enterprise search– Customisation

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Possible results

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But you do not expect….

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..to end up as:

..this

A search engine’s results may vary

In content and presentation From one minute to the next

– different server being used

Country versions – different emphasis– local content– different interface– different search features

Different ‘chains’ or ‘brands’– Live.com, Tafiti– Yahoo, Yahoo Alpha, AlltheWeb– Exalead, Baagz

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Google

Number of hits is often fictional Thousands of different servers around the world, running

different versions of the database, search features and ranking algorithms

My Google experiment– site:www.charity-commission.gov.uk "makes grants to

organisations" – posted to several discussion lists, results from 157 people– majority were 40500, 48600, 49000 hits– a handful reported ca 22000– Google Canada 5400– many displayed 78 results– “repeat search with omitted results” - ca 250 results

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Google News

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Google.com vs Google.co.uk

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iGoogle

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My iGoogle

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My Yahoo!

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http://www.yahoo.co.uk/

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search.yahoo.co.uk, search.yahoo.com

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search.yahoo.co.uk, search.yahoo.com

yahoo.co.uk yahoo.com

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mindset.research.yahoo.com

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http://au.alpha.yahoo.com/

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http://livesearch.alltheweb.com/

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Ask Germany http://www.ask.de/

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Ask UK http://www.ask.co.uk/

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Live Search http://www.live.com/

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Live UK vs Live US

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http://www.tafiti.com/

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http://www.tafiti.com/

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Original Tafiti

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http://www.tafiti.com/

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http://www.exalead.com/

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http://www.exalead.com/

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Baagz

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What Google's homepage may look like in 2084www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2005/10/10/opinion/1010opart.html

Dine à la carte

images audio/video news blogs, RSS reference peer reviewed papers patents books social and professional networks etc. etc.

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Blog searching

Google Blogsearch– http://www.google.com/blogsearch

Ask – Blogs and feeds– http://www.ask.com/

Exalead– http://www.exalead.com/

– limit search to Site Type Blog

Live Search– http://www.live.com/ and select Feeds

Blog and feed search engines– Technorati, Blogpulse

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http://www.intelways.com/

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Gourmet searching

The set menu may be fast but may not give you what you want

Different country versions – different presentation– different content– different search options– different ranking of results

Be aware of different ‘brands’ Think about the type and format of information you

need – the search engines do not always give you the full menu

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Karen BlakemanTel: +44 118 947 2256karen.blakeman@rba.co.uk http://www.rba.co.uk/Blog: http://ukeig.wordpress.com/

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License