Use Of Web Search Engines Research Articles

On the self-adjustment of privacy safeguards for query log streams

Internet-based services process and store numerous search queries around the globe. The use of web search engines, such as Bing and Google, as well as personal assistants (e.g., Alexa and Cortana) and task specific systems (e.g., YouTube, Netflix, Amazon) are relevant examples. The queries associated to such services may be stored and sold out for profit. Before doing so, personal and sensitive information must be sanitized, as requested by current regulations. This can be cumbersome for some organizations. We present an automated solution for anonymizing unstructured data, like the one used within query logs. Our solution uses a light-weight probabilistic k-anonymity approach, which allows verifiable real-time privacy protection. It addresses previous limitations and improves performance. We validate the feasibility of the approach, under some evaluation metrics including data utility, privacy and speed.

The Association Between Health Information Seeking on the Internet and Physician Visits (The Seventh Tromsø Study - Part 4): Population-Based Questionnaire Study.

BackgroundThe internet is being widely used for seeking health information. However, there is no consensus on the association between health information seeking on the internet and the use of health care services.ObjectiveWe examined the association between health information seeking via the internet and physician visits. In addition, we investigated the association between online health information seeking and the decisions to visit and not to visit a physician.MethodsWe used the cross-sectional electronic health (eHealth) data of 18,197 participants from the seventh survey of the Tromsø Study (Tromsø 7). The participants were aged ≥40 years and living in Tromsø, Norway. We used logistic regression models to examine the association between online health information seeking and physician visits, the decision to visit a physician, and the decision not to visit a physician, with adjustment for the demographic status, socioeconomic status, and health status of the participants.ResultsThe use of Web search engines was associated with a physician visit. However, the association was moderated by age, and the OR decreased as age increased. The ORs for the use of Web search engines were 1.99 (95% CI 1.94-2.02) and 1.07 (95% CI 1.03-1.12) at ages 40 and 80 years, respectively. The decision to visit a physician was associated with the use of Web search engines (OR 2.95, 95% CI 2.03-4.46), video search engines (OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.21-1.70), and health apps (OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.13-1.42). The association between social media use and the decision to visit a physician was moderated by gender. Women who used social media had 1.42 (95% CI 1.31-1.55) times higher odds of deciding to visit a physician, whereas the decision to visit a physician was not different between men who used social media and those who did not use social media. Conversely, the decision not to visit a physician was associated with the use of Web search engines (OR 2.78, 95% CI 1.92-4.18), video search engines (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.07-1.51), social media (OR 1.28, 95% CI 1.10-1.49), and health apps (OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.07-1.35).ConclusionsHealth information found on the internet was positively associated with both the decision to visit a physician and the decision not to visit a physician. However, the association of health information seeking with the decision to visit a physician was slightly stronger than the association with the decision not to visit a physician. This could imply that the use of eHealth services is associated with a resultant increase in physician visits. In summary, our findings suggest that the internet serves as a supplement to health care services rather than as a replacement.

Privacy Exposure Measure: A Privacy-Preserving Technique for Health-Related Web Search

The increasing use of web search engines (WSEs) for searching healthcare information has resulted in a growing number of users posting personal health information online. A recent survey demonstrates that over 80% of patients use WSE to seek health information. However, WSE stores these user's queries to analyze user behavior, result ranking, personalization, targeted advertisements, and other activities. Since health-related queries contain privacy-sensitive information that may infringe user's privacy. Therefore, privacy-preserving web search techniques such as anonymizing networks, profile obfuscation, private information retrieval (PIR) protocols etc. are used to ensure the user's privacy. In this paper, we propose Privacy Exposure Measure (PEM), a technique that facilitates user to control his/her privacy exposure while using the PIR protocols. PEM assesses the similarity between the user's profile and query before posting to WSE and assists the user in avoiding privacy exposure. The experiments demonstrate 37.2% difference between users' profile created through PEM-powered-PIR protocol and other usual users' profile. Moreover, PEM offers more privacy to the user even in case of machine-learning attack.

A pre-post study to assess the impact of an information-problem solving intervention on university students’ perceptions and self-efficacy towards search engines

This study investigates the changes in university students’ perceptions towards the use of Web search engines after their exposure to a teaching intervention centered on the information problem-solving process. A total of 138 students of the Department of Educational Sciences and Early Childhood Education of the University of Patras were surveyed to measure perceived ease of use and usefulness of search engines and search engine self-efficacy. A questionnaire, part of which was based on the Technology Acceptance Model, was developed and distributed to respondents, both before and after the course, to measure their perceptions. The results revealed statistically significant improvement for the ease of use and usefulness of search engines, as well as for search engine self-efficacy.

Virtual Reference Services through Web Search Engines: Study of Academic Libraries in Pakistan

Web search engines (WSE) are powerful and popular tools in the field of information service management. This study is an attempt to examine the impact and usefulness of web search engines in providing virtual reference services (VRS) within academic libraries in Pakistan. The study also attempts to investigate the relevant expertise and skills of library professionals in providing digital reference services (DRS) efficiently using web search engines. Methodology used in this study is quantitative in nature. The data was collected from fifty public and private sector universities in Pakistan using a structured questionnaire. Microsoft Excel and SPSS were used for data analysis. The study concludes that web search engines are commonly used by librarians to help users (especially research scholars) by providing digital reference services. The study also finds a positive correlation between use of web search engines and quality of digital reference services provided to library users. It is concluded that although search engines have increased the expectations of users and are really big competitors to a library’s reference desk, they are however not an alternative to reference service. Findings reveal that search engines pose numerous challenges for librarians and the study also attempts to bring together possible remedial measures. This study is useful for library professionals to understand the importance of search engines in providing VRS. The study also provides an intellectual comparison among different search engines, their capabilities, limitations, challenges and opportunities to provide VRS effectively in libraries.

Effectiveness of real-time query expansion in a library catalog

Query expansion (QE) is a potentially effective technique to help searchers formulate or improve their search. In January 2010, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) Library made an effort to improve user interactions with authority data in its online catalog. It introduced a real- time query expansion feature for the catalog interface that would provide real-time suggestions based on what the user had typed in the search box. QE is not a new technique, and has been widely used in web search interfaces. It has rarely been adopted by library catalogs though. From the libraries perspective, populating the query expansion feature with authority data provides a balance between traditional library use of authority records and the expectations users have from their use of Web search engines. By analyzing the search logs from the library server, we investigate the impact of this feature on users' search behavior. Two sampling periods of logs were chosen: April 2009 (before the feature's launch) and April 2010 (after the feature's launch). Totally, we have analyzed approximately 200M log data with approximately 800,000 useful log records. Results showed that users take the suggestions 20.26% of all searches. There was a significant increase in the rate of subject searches. The library catalog interface supporting dynamic query expansion also leads to longer queries, less query iterations per search, and fewer result items viewed per search. In addition, search failure rate has seen a great drop. However, results also imply some issues may exist with the use of query expansion, necessitating proper handling of the search expansion interface. Our findings have implications for how query expansions should be offered to library catalogs to increase the use of library's collection.

Complementary Value of Databases for Discovery of Scholarly Literature: A User Survey of Online Searching for Publications in Art History

Discovery of academic literature through Web search engines challenges the traditional role of specialized research databases. Creation of literature outside academic presses and peer-reviewed publications expands the content for scholarly research within a particular field. The resulting body of literature raises the question of whether scholars prefer the perceived broader access of Web search engines or opt for the precision of field-specific research databases. Surveys of art historians indicate a complementary use of online search tools with a reliance on field-specific research databases to discover authoritative content. Active use of Web search engines and initiatives for open access suggest that research databases will integrate into an evolving Web-based infrastructure that supports discovery and access of scholarly literature.

Exploring young children's web searching and technoliteracy

PurposeThis paper aims to report findings from an exploratory study investigating the web interactions and technoliteracy of children in the early childhood years. Previous research has studied aspects of older children's technoliteracy and web searching; however, few studies have analyzed web search data from children younger than six years of age.Design/methodology/approachThe study explored the Google web searching and technoliteracy of young children who are enrolled in a “preparatory classroom” or kindergarten (the year before young children begin compulsory schooling in Queensland, Australia). Young children were video‐ and audio‐taped while conducting Google web searches in the classroom. The data were qualitatively analysed to understand the young children's web search behaviour.FindingsThe findings show that young children engage in complex web searches, including keyword searching and browsing, query formulation and reformulation, relevance judgments, successive searches, information multitasking and collaborative behaviours. The study results provide significant initial insights into young children's web searching and technoliteracy.Practical implicationsThe use of web search engines by young children is an important research area with implications for educators and web technologies developers.Originality/valueThis is the first study of young children's interaction with a web search engine.

Review of “Search Engines: Information Retrieval in Practice” by Croft, Metzler and Strohman

Despite the common public use of Web search engines, their internal design details mostly remain as a black art. The speculation is that there is a significant knowledge gap between what is published by academia and what is guarded behind the doors of large-scale search companies. “Search Engines: Information Retrieval in Practice” is one of the few books that make an attempt to cover issues involved in search engine design and is probably the most comprehensive book published so far on this topic. Unfortunately, the book fails to be a complete search engine guide as its content is dominated by the topics from information retrieval, text processing, and statistics. More precisely, the focus of the book is biased towards the “search” rather than the “engines” as, in most places, discussions on effectiveness dominate those on efficiency by a great margin. However, the book stands as a very solid IR book.

Limitations of Advanced Searching Techniques on Web Search Engines

Abstract General purpose Web search engines can be a valuable tool to locate high quality information and can complement the use of specialized systems, such as LexisNexis or WestLaw. The effective use of Web search engines differs somewhat from that of other information retrieval systems and requires an understanding of search engine design and procedures before effective use. We present an overview of search engines and user behavior in Web searching as an introduction to a discussion of the effectiveness of using some of the advanced searching techniques common in other searching environments in Web searches. We empirically test the effectiveness on query operators for Web searching. The use of operators such as AND, OR, and PHRASE was found to have little or no difference on the number of relevant results retrieved for three major search engines, America Online, Google, and Microsoft Search.

How are we searching the World Wide Web? A comparison of nine search engine transaction logs

The Web and especially major Web search engines are essential tools in the quest to locate online information for many people. This paper reports results from research that examines characteristics and changes in Web searching from nine studies of five Web search engines based in the US and Europe. We compare interactions occurring between users and Web search engines from the perspectives of session length, query length, query complexity, and content viewed among the Web search engines. The results of our research shows (1) users are viewing fewer result pages, (2) searchers on US-based Web search engines use more query operators than searchers on European-based search engines, (3) there are statistically significant differences in the use of Boolean operators and result pages viewed, and (4) one cannot necessary apply results from studies of one particular Web search engine to another Web search engine. The wide spread use of Web search engines, employment of simple queries, and decreased viewing of result pages may have resulted from algorithmic enhancements by Web search engine companies. We discuss the implications of the findings for the development of Web search engines and design of online content.

The use of web search engines in information science research

L'A. passe en revue la recherche en sciences de l'information sur les moteurs de recherche du Web, en tant qu'objets d'investigation ou d'outils de collecte de donnees. Apres un rappel de l'arriere-plan technologique, elle explore les differentes orientations des etudes : interaction des utilisateurs avec les moteurs de recherche et effets sociaux de la recherche sur le Web ; structure et nature dynamique du Web ; analyse de liens ; facteur d'impact du Web ; autres applications bibliometriques ; caracterisation de l'information sur le Web ; evaluation des performances des moteurs de recherche ; amelioration des outils existants ; nouvelles tendances.

Internet Search Engines

SUMMARY The relationship between the methods currently used for indexing the World Wide Web and the programs, languages, and protocols on which the World Wide Web is based is examined. Two methods for indexing the Web are described, directories being briefly discussed while search engines are considered in detail. The automated approach used to create these tools is examined with special emphasis on the parts of a document used in indexing. Shortcomings of the approach are described. Suggestions for effective use of Web search engines are given.

A Red Light Sabre to Go, and Other Histories of the Present

A Red Light Sabre to Go, and Other Histories of the Present

Ethnography of Novices' First Use of Web Search Engines

Without prior searching instruction, undergraduate novices wrote structured self-reports during their first session on a Web search engine. Users chose their own topics and followed written instructions that prompted them to describe thoughts and feelings during specified stages of the search: pre-search formulation; search statement formulation; search strategy; and evaluation of results. The sentences in the self-reports were numbered and then coded according to their affective or cognitive function. The affective sentences reveal how users set goals and limit the scope of the cognitive operations. Search acts appear to be governed by an affective filter that organizes incoming information and provides criteria for ranking cognitive relevance to search goal. The cognitive sentences reveal a variety of operations in executing searches. Following the search, students made self-ratings on self-confidence as searchers and satisfaction with the search experience, with explanations of their ratings. Content analysis identified reasons users have for rating self-confidence, stress level, satisfaction, usefulness, and success with future searches.