[Web4lib] search engine inconsistencies report page

[Felicia Mehl]

Although that's a good point about the inconsistencies page being last updated in 2003, my reason for forwarding a link to the page was to point out the problems specifically listed about Google (which were last updated in October 2003--not an eternity!). It was not in any way to offer any comparison to AltaVista, Hotbot or Northern Lights. To be honest, I haven't even looked at those pages. My interest was in Google only--I merely sent the link to the entry page.

A couple of people have mentioned that Google's algorithms must have changed a lot in the last year or two, but I'm not sure this is the case. What do you base that assumption on? I sure that they've been adjusted, but some of the problems discussed on the list earlier are the same ones discussed on the Notess site. I offered it merely for its possible explanations of the problems and as a suggestion for a place to report inconsistencies. Prof. Notess does request on the site that people email him with any additional problems they notice. I took him for his word on that and still do! (By the way, I have emailed him and requested an update to that page, if at all possible.)

Google also requests feedback and as someone mentioned in an earlier post, they were responsive to his emails and fixed the errors. Of course, it's probably impossible for them to fix it completely, but if you see something that's a problem, I think it's important to try and take action to fix it. How you go about it is up to you--you could contact the product/service provider or someone who is a consumer watchdog or yes, even a university!

If there's any more up-to-date information on these issues, please pass it along. I'm very interested in this topic and would like to read more about it.

Thanks,
Felicia

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Richard Wiggins 
  To: Felicia Mehl 
  Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org 
  Sent: Tuesday, July 05, 2005 7:38 PM
  Subject: Re: [Web4lib] search engine inconsistencies report page


  Felicia,

  The site you reference is by Greg R. Notess, a notable commentator on search engines in general and Google in particular.   

  Unfortunately the comparison article that you cite was last updated in July 2003, and a couple of years is an eternity in Web time. The search engines reviewed are AltaVista (now virtually irrelevant in the search pantheon, after many ownership changes, and now run stealthily as a Yahoo property), Hotbot, Northern Light (whom I once claimed was the future of rock n' roll when it comes to full text search of serious literature) --  and Google. 

  I bet Google's algorithms have changed greatly in the intervening years, as have everyone else's.  One of Greg's complaints back then was:  


    SITE LIMIT FAILURE: A search such as site:www.google.com google should only find pages at Google. Yet with the number of hits set to 100, some records come up from adobe.com, digits.com, osdn.com, and even washington.edu. 

  I could not replicate this flaw just now.  

  Perhaps more to the point, right now we'd want to compare Google to today's competitors, Yahoo Search and MSN Search.  (Yes, I know, some one will pop up and say Ask Jeeves is still a player.)

  Maybe Greg will propose a solution for updating his Inconsistencies report.  We could all bombard him with our own observations.   Or maybe hold a contest.  Or ask a library science class to help?  But, respectfully, I wouldn't cite the 2003 report as current reality... 

  /rich





  On 7/5/05, Felicia Mehl <felicia at u.washington.edu> wrote:
  > There is an interesting page on different search engine inconsistencies at: 
  > http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/inconsistent.shtml
  > 
  > You can also report specific problems you encounter to the page owner.
  > 
  > Felicia Mehl
  > Master's candidate, Library and Information Science
  > University of Washington
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