Research on Search Engines

[Bennett, David]

     My Information Retrieval Class is doing a study on Internet Search 
Engines.  We are comparing some of the major search engines in terms of 
currency, response time, and relevance.

    Our sample for response time is limited to Pittsburgh, PA...so I have 
a request.  Everyone who records the response time for all four search 
engines will be entered into a random drawing for a *free* PittCom 97 
t-shirt (postage paid).   Also, I will post the results to the list.

     Would you please perform the following search:

    "ultimate website"    <---  Make sure you use the quotes...this 
forces it to search for a phrase

at the following four sites?
	http://www.altavista.com 
	http://www.excite.com
	http://www.infoseek.com
	http://www.yahoo.com

and record the number of seconds it takes from when you click SEARCH to 
when the search completely finishes?

     Email me the name of the search engine next to the number of 
seconds.  I already know the number of hits for each search engine.

REPORTING SHEET
Searchs performed by:
City, State, Country:
Speed of Connection:

ENGINE	  #of Seconds
altavista 
excite
infoseek
yahoo

    Unfortunately, we could not include Lycos in the study, because I 
could not figure out how to force LYCOS to limit the search to a phrase 
in the exact same way as the other engines.

     Thanks for your consideration!  Send your results in as soon as 
possible.
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David Bennett  (bennett at robert-morris.edu)
Systems Support & Instruction Librarian
Robert Morris College Library
881 Narrows Run Road
Moon Township, PA  15108
(412) 262-8474
(412) 262-4049 fax
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