Improving ranking -Reply

[Bas Peters]

What about the Dublin Core element set? I know it is still rarely used,
but are there any web search engine that index dublin core meta tags
properly? Is there a future for Dublin Core to gain access to web sites?

Bas Peters
IDC Publishers

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Martin Courtois [SMTP:courtois at gwis2.circ.gwu.edu]
> Sent:	Monday, June 22, 1998 3:34 PM
> To:	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject:	Re: Improving ranking -Reply
> 
> I've been working with a faculty member in the Computer Science dept.
> at
> University of Tennessee, Knoxville to test the ranking capabilities of
> major WWW search engines.  We just finished analyzing 6000 pages
> retrieved
> by searches and we're surprised at the results.  Even for a very
> simple
> test, such as "Are any pages that do not contain all search terms
> ranked
> higher than pages that do contain all search terms?," search engines
> showed error rates of 8 to 30 percent for the first 100 items
> retrieved. 
> Tests for proximity of terms and location of terms (meta tags, title,
> headings, etc.) were even worse, with error rates of up to 80%. 
> 
> With the dynamic nature of the Web, secrecy of ranking algorithms, and
> spamming/spoofing techniques, it's difficult to achieve consistent
> results
> from search engines.  I think Danny Sullivan
> (www.searchenginewatch.com) 
> offers the best advice for techniques to achieve the best ranking
> possible
> without turning this into a full-time job or costing way too much.
> 
> Several people have commented on search engines' use of meta tags.
> Keep
> in mind that Excite ignores all terms in meta tags.  Lycos indexes
> these
> terms, but they are treated as any other text, i.e., they do do not
> receive a relevancy boost. 
> 
> Marty    
> 
> ***********************************************************
> Martin Courtois
> Electrical Engineering/Computer Science Reference Librarian
> Gelman Library
> George Washington University
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