Effect of Query Formation on Web Search Engine Results
This addresses the problem of query variability for web searchers seeking consistent relevance, but it is incremental as it builds on known issues in search engine behavior.
The study examined how different natural language formulations of semantically identical queries affect Google search results, finding that while total document coverage remains the same, the top results differ significantly.
Query in a search engine is generally based on natural language. A query can be expressed in more than one way without changing its meaning as it depends on thinking of human being at a particular moment. Aim of the searcher is to get most relevant results immaterial of how the query has been expressed. In the present paper, we have examined the results of search engine for change in coverage and similarity of first few results when a query is entered in two semantically same but in different formats. Searching has been made through Google search engine. Fifteen pairs of queries have been chosen for the study. The t-test has been used for the purpose and the results have been checked on the basis of total documents found, similarity of first five and first ten documents found in the results of a query entered in two different formats. It has been found that the total coverage is same but first few results are significantly different.