The retrieval effectiveness of search engines on navigational queries

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to test major web search engines on their performance on navigational queries, i.e. searches for homepages.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 100 user queries are posed to six search engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask, Seekport, and Exalead). Users described the desired pages, and the results position of these was recorded. Measured success and mean reciprocal rank are calculated.

Findings

The performance of the major search engines Google, Yahoo!, and MSN was found to be the best, with around 90 per cent of queries answered correctly. Ask and Exalead performed worse but received good scores as well.

Research limitations/implications

All queries were in German, and the German‐language interfaces of the search engines were used. Therefore, the results are only valid for German queries.

Practical implications

When designing a search engine to compete with the major search engines, care should be taken on the performance on navigational queries. Users can be influenced easily in their quality ratings of search engines based on this performance.

Originality/value

This study systematically compares the major search engines on navigational queries and compares the findings with studies on the retrieval effectiveness of the engines on informational queries.

Citation

Lewandowski, D. (2011), "The retrieval effectiveness of search engines on navigational queries", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 63 No. 4, pp. 354-363. https://doi.org/10.1108/00012531111148949