What the Search Engines are up to Now: same ingredients different recipes Karen Blakeman RBA Information Services, UK 02 June 20141Karen Blakeman

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

10 April 2023 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 2

Possible results


But you do not expect….


..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


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



Google News


Google.com vs Google.co.uk


iGoogle


My iGoogle


My Yahoo!


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


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

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


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

yahoo.co.uk yahoo.com


mindset.research.yahoo.com


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


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

http://livesearch.alltheweb.com/


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


http://www.ask.de/

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


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

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


Live UK vs Live US


http://www.tafiti.com/




Original Tafiti




http://www.exalead.com/


http://www.exalead.com/


Baagz



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.


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


http://www.intelways.com/


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



Karen BlakemanTel: +44 118 947 [email protected] http://www.rba.co.uk/Blog: http://ukeig.wordpress.com/

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License

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What the Search Engines are up to Now: same ingredients different recipes Karen Blakeman RBA Information Services, UK 02 June 20141Karen Blakeman