Intriguing behavior when testing the impact of quotation marks usage in Google search results

TL;DR

This study investigates how quotation mark usage in Google searches affects result distributions, revealing that quotes lead to outcomes following Benford's Law, unlike unquoted searches, thus impacting result validity.

Contribution

It applies Benford Law analysis to compare search result distributions with and without quotation marks, highlighting their influence on search output validity.

Findings

Results with quotation marks follow Benford's Law.

Unquoted search results do not follow Benford's Law.

Quotation marks reduce variability in search outcomes.

Abstract

Internet research on search engine quality and validity of results demand much concern. Thus, the focus in our study has been to measure the impact of quotation marks usage on the internet search outputs in terms of google search outcomes distributions, through Benford Law. The current paper is focused on applying a Benford Law analysis on two related types of internet searches distinguished by the usage or absence of quotation marks. Both search results values are assumed as variables. We found that the first digit of outcomes does not follow the Benford Law first digit of numbers in the case of searching text without quotation marks. Unexpectedly, the Benford Law is obeyed when quotation marks are used, even if the variability of search outcomes is considerably reduced. By studying outputs demonstrating influences of (apparently at first) "details", in using a search engine, the authors are able to further warn the users concerning the validity of such outputs.