Problems with the use of Web search engines to find results in foreign languages
Dirk Lewandowski

TL;DR
This study evaluates major search engines' ability to distinguish and retrieve documents in foreign languages, revealing significant limitations in Google and MSN when language restrictions are applied.
Contribution
It identifies a previously unexamined problem with search engines' language filtering, providing practical guidance for better foreign-language search strategies.
Findings
Google and MSN struggle with foreign language restrictions
Yahoo and Ask perform better with language-restricted searches
Using the interface language in the target language improves results
Abstract
Purpose - To test the ability of major search engines, Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask, to distinguish between German and English-language documents Design/methodology/approach - 50 queries, using words common in German and in English, were posed to the engines. The advanced search option of language restriction was used, once in German and once in English. The first 20 results per engine in each language were investigated. Findings - While none of the search engines faces problems in providing results in the language of the interface that is used, both Google and MSN face problems when the results are restricted to a foreign language. Research limitations/implications - Search engines were only tested in German and in English. We have only anecdotal evidence that the problems are the same with other languages. Practical implications - Searchers should not use the language…
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Taxonomy
TopicsAuthorship Attribution and Profiling · Digital Communication and Language · Wikis in Education and Collaboration
