Effect of Query Formation on Web Search Engine Results

TL;DR

This study investigates how different natural language query formats affect the initial search results in Google, finding that while total coverage remains consistent, the top results vary significantly.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on the impact of query phrasing on search engine result similarity, highlighting the importance of query formulation.

Findings

Total search coverage remains unchanged across query formats.

First few search results differ significantly between query formats.

Results vary in the top five and ten documents based on query expression.

Abstract

Query in a search engine is generally based on natural language. A query can be expressed in more than one way without changing its meaning as it depends on thinking of human being at a particular moment. Aim of the searcher is to get most relevant results immaterial of how the query has been expressed. In the present paper, we have examined the results of search engine for change in coverage and similarity of first few results when a query is entered in two semantically same but in different formats. Searching has been made through Google search engine. Fifteen pairs of queries have been chosen for the study. The t-test has been used for the purpose and the results have been checked on the basis of total documents found, similarity of first five and first ten documents found in the results of a query entered in two different formats. It has been found that the total coverage is same but first few results are significantly different.