Which search engine is the best?
1. Pick two search engines to compare such as Yahoo, Google, Bing, or DuckDuck Go.
a. Google & Yahoo
2. Try lexically ambiguous searches, such as China or Washington. What search engine handles your search better? Why? Do you see any clustering?
a. Google: Searched “Washington” and received information about Washington, D.C., Washington the state, and popular attractions that included Washington in the name.
b. Yahoo: Searched “Washington” and received information about rentals in Washington and Washington, D.C. Yahoo also showed schools and organizations that had Washington in the name in Ohio.
c. I believe Google did a better job of narrowing down what the initial search might have meant. I personally didn’t like how Yahoo took my location to find organizations with Washington in the name, near me.
3. Try a sample search on both pages that is not (or is minimally) semantically ambiguous. Considering only the top 20 results, which search engine offers better precision? Why do you say so?
a. Google: Searched “George Washington”, received majority results of 1st president with a few odd results of a University and Mount Vernon.
b. Yahoo: Searched “George Washington”, received results of the 1st president and of his life.
4. Is it possible to determine which search engine offers better recall? Explain why or why not?
a. I don’t believe it’s completely possible to determine which has better recall because with the ambiguous search Google did better, but with the more in depth search, Yahoo did better. Meaning each search can result in different success rates between the two.