Spanish web searching tools: An exploratory study

Abstract

AbstractWeb search engines are now major tools that people use to find information on the Web. Few studies have examined the extent and functionality of these Web searching tools that support Spanish‐speaking users. Our study identified 72 publically available Spanish‐language‐supporting Web search engines. The research questions are the following: a) What Web searching tools are available to Spanish speaking users?, b) What are the features of these tools?, c) What are the current web search engine restrictions? d) What are the functionalities of multimedia Web search engines that allow searching in Spanish? The Web functionality methodology developed by Tjondronegoro and Spink was adapted and modified to examine the functionality of Spanish Web search engines. The findings include: (1) limited set of Web search features for Spanish‐speaking users, (2) a lack of Spanish language interfaces, (3) lack of functionality in 18% of the Web searching tools examined, and (4) due to the high interest in Spanish language media, a need for multimedia Web search tools to support Spanish language users. Further research is needed to examine the needs of Spanish language users and the development of Spanish language Web search tools.