French researcher Jean Veronis reports the results of a study in which he asked students to generate search queries around designated themes and then rate the quality of the first link returned. The system submitted the searches to Google and Yahoo and students were unaware of the engine responsible for the link they evaluated. Satisfaction ratings slightly favored Google.
Other findings:
- In 27% of searches, the link returned at the top of the list was the same.
- A relatively large % of first links were to Wikipedia and the author reports that this has changed dramatically from previous implements of his research procedure.
The proportion of links to Wikipedia is perplexing and why the change? The researcher speculates the web is becoming more volatile (with blogs, etc.) and pagerank no longer may return what searchers regard as satisfactory hits. Wikipedia, in contrast, is safe and stable.
While a safe strategy, the researcher concludes that some may decide to simply point their browser to wikipedia for information searches rather than use the search sites we have come to know and love.
Interesting research method. Students looking for research projects might be able to use variations of this approach – e.g., search engines designed for young users vs. Google.
