Search results

This paper evaluates the precision of four metasearch engines (MSEs) – DuckDuckGo, Dogpile, Metacrawler and Startpage, to determine which metasearch engine exhibits the highest level of precision and to identify the metasearch engine that is most likely to return the most relevant search results.

The research is divided into two parts: the first phase involves four queries categorized into two segments (4-Q-2-S), while the second phase includes six queries divided into three segments (6-Q-3-S). These queries vary in complexity, falling into three types: simple, phrase and complex. The precision, average precision and the presence of duplicates across all the evaluated metasearch engines are determined.

The study clearly demonstrated that Startpage returned the most relevant results and achieved the highest precision (0.98) among the four MSEs. Conversely, DuckDuckGo exhibited consistent performance across both phases of the study.

The study only evaluated four metasearch engines, which may not be representative of all available metasearch engines. Additionally, a limited number of queries were used, which may not be sufficient to generalize the findings to all types of queries.

The findings of this study can be valuable for accreditation agencies in managing duplicates, improving their search capabilities and obtaining more relevant and precise results. These findings can also assist users in selecting the best metasearch engine based on precision rather than interface.

The study is the first of its kind which evaluates the four metasearch engines. No similar study has been conducted in the past to measure the performance of metasearch engines.

Employees facing challenges in their careers – i.e. female, migrant, elderly and lower-educated employees – might expect job searches to have a low likelihood of success and might therefore more often stay in unsatisfactory positions. The goal of this study is to discover inequalities in job mobility for these employees.

We rely on a large sample of Dutch public sector employees (N = 30,709) and study whether employees with challenges in their careers are hampered in translating job dissatisfaction into job searches. Additionally, we assess whether this is due to their perceptions of labor market alternatives.

Findings show that non-Western migrant, elderly and lower-educated employees are less likely to act on job dissatisfaction than their advantaged counterparts, whereas women are more likely than men to do so. Additionally, we find that although they perceive labor market opportunities as limited, this does not affect their propensity to search for different jobs.

This paper is novel in discovering inequalities in job mobility by analyzing whether employees facing challenges in their careers are less likely to act on job dissatisfaction and therefore more likely to remain in unsatisfactory positions.

Exploratory search activities are ubiquitous in various information systems. Much potentially useful or even serendipitous information is discovered during the exploratory search process. Given its irreplaceable role in information systems, exploratory search has attracted growing attention from the information system community. Since few studies have methodically reviewed current publications, researchers and practitioners are unable to take full advantage of existing achievements, which, in turn, limits their progress in this field. Through a literature review, this study aims to recapitulate important research topics of exploratory search in information systems, providing a research landscape of exploratory search.

Automatic and manual searches were performed on seven reputable databases to collect relevant literature published between January 2005 and July 2023. The literature pool contains 146 primary studies on exploratory search in information system research.

This study recapitulated five important topics of exploratory search, namely, conceptual frameworks, theoretical frameworks, influencing factors, design features and evaluation metrics. Moreover, this review revealed research gaps in current studies and proposed a knowledge framework and a research agenda for future studies.

This study has important implications for beginners to quickly get a snapshot of exploratory search studies, for researchers to re-align current research or discover new interesting issues, and for practitioners to design information systems that support exploratory search.

The motion vector estimation algorithm is very widely used in many image process applications, such as the image stabilization and object tracking algorithms. The conventional searching algorithm, based on the block matching manipulation, is used to estimate the motion vectors in conventional image processing algorithms. During the block matching manipulation, the violent motion will result in greater amount of computation. However, too large amount of calculation will reduce the effectiveness of the motion vector estimation algorithm. This paper aims to present a novel searching method to estimate the motion vectors effectively.

This paper presents a novel searching method to estimate the motion vectors for high-resolution image sequences. The searching strategy of this algorithm includes three steps: the larger area searching, the adaptive directional searching and the small area searching.

The achievement of this paper is to develop a motion vector searching strategy to improve the computation efficiency. Compared with the conventional motion vector searching algorithms, the novel motion vector searching algorithm can reduce the motion matching manipulation effectively by 50 per cent.

This paper presents a novel searching strategy to estimate the motion vectors effectively. From the experimental results, the novel motion vector searching algorithm can reduce the motion matching manipulation effectively, compared with the conventional motion vector searching algorithms.

Discusses the change in the search‐to‐produce ratio from 3:1 to 1.5:1 free searches for every produce or update command. Explains what the OCLC considers to be on the ′search′ side and what activities are on the ′produce′ side of the ratio, focusing on numeric and derived keys, title browse, search history, and the use of microenhancers and CD450 searches.

Online databases have become increasingly accessible to end users through the use of microcomputers. The quickly expanding family of end‐user databases and software support services reflects the diverse needs of end users. Two popular databases, Compu‐Serve and The Source, appeal to home and business users with direct access to such data as financial information, airline schedules, restaurant guides, weather news, and consumer tips. A related approach has been taken by DIALOG'S Knowledge Index and BRS/After Dark. Directed toward the home information consumer, these vendor services provide access to some 12 to 23 of their most frequently consulted online databases. Using simplified DIALOG and BRS search protocol, the microcomputer operator is charged a reduced fee by searching during evening and weekend hours. A third variation on end‐user searching exists in front‐end software programs such as OL'SAM, CAST and Userkit. These products allow the user to gain access to a variety of database vendors using a single search protocol; the user learns one set of commands which, through the mediation of the software, will work on several database systems. ISI's Sci‐Mate provides similar features.

At the beginning of the 1970s it became apparent to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food that the use of computers for information work merited serious consideration. We had taken part in investigations which indicated that the technology was well developed and reliable. We knew that large scale commercial services were available. What we did not know was the real value of these external services to the Ministry. All the databases concerned were derived from very familiar printed secondary journals. Did mechanized operation offer substantial advantages? Was the cost justified? How could mechanized operations fit into the present library activities? If the use of computers did offer improved facilities, what administrative arrangements were necessary? It was decided, therefore, to attempt to answer these questions by the evaluation of external computer‐based bibliographic information services under practical conditions.

Moves, or changes in query formulation, are made to resolve three problem situations: (1) when retrieved sets are too large; (2) when they are too small; or (3) when retrieved sets are off‐target. Observation and analysis of about ninety searches resulted in a list of eighteen operational moves, or modifications of query formulation, that keep the meaning of query components unchanged, and twelve conceptual moves which change the meaning of query components. All these moves are explained and then related to search tactics and strategies.

Industrial and academic users of online bibliographic searching over a year's time did not generally diminish their amount of use of other traditional manual means of information gathering activities. However, in comparison to less frequent users and nonusers, frequent users increased their reliance on librarians. Online users increased their appraisal of the adequacy of information services available to them, particularly as regards those aspects generally considered the primary benefits of online searching. Users positively increased their assessment of the utility of online searches to their work, and online bibliographic searching capability was subsequently adopted as a permanent feature in both the industrial and academic work settings.

Taking into account the steady growth in terms of number of hosts and databases, size of databases and types of databases, the need to establish user aids increases. For a couple of years at the GSF Research Centre for Environment and Health we have been developing an information system for environmental chemicals. Within this research project the construction of automated searches is an important task. For the efficient set‐up of those automated searches the following items are essential: knowledge of chemistry or a related subject; knowledge about the content of databases; knowledge of the different retrieval languages. We have access to ten international hosts. For these hosts we elaborated automated searches using communications software written in‐house which includes a script language for preformulated searches. In our paper we give examples of automated searches by Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) Number and the physical‐chemical parameter boiling point. Preformulated search scripts will be given for DIALOG databases. This approach is a time‐ and cost‐saving alternative to the classical search.