ABS: Snyder, Can search engines be used as tools for web-link analyisis?

[Gretchen Whitney]

PT J
AU Snyder, H   email hsnyder at indiana.edu

   Rosenbaum, H
TI Can search engines be used as tools for web-link analysis? A
   critical view
SO JOURNAL OF DOCUMENTATION
NR 19
C1 Indiana Univ, Sch Lib & Informat Sci, Bloomington, IN 47405
   USA.
   Indiana Univ, Sch Lib & Informat Sci, Bloomington, IN 47405 USA.
ID WORLD-WIDE-WEB; CITATION; SCIENCE; IMPACT
AB The paper investigates the problems of using commercial search
   engines for web-link research and attempts to clarify the
   nature of the problems involved in the use of these engines.
   The research finds that search engines are highly variable in
   the results they produce, are limited in the search functions
   they offer, have poorly and/or incorrectly documented
   functions, use search logics that are opaque, and change the
   search functions they offer over time. The limitations which
   are inherent in commercial search engines should cause
   researchers to have reservations about any conclusions that
   rely on these tools as primary data-gathering instruments. The
   shortcomings are market-driven rather than inherent properties
   of the web or of web-searching technologies. Improved
   functionalities are within the technical capabilities of search
   engine programmers and could be made available to the research
   community. The findings also offer mild support for the
   validity of the connection between web links and citations as
   analogues of intellectual linkage.
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BP 375
EP 384
PG 10
JI J. Doc.
PY 1999
PD SEP
VL 55
IS 4
GA 234VH
RP Snyder H
   Indiana Univ, Sch Lib & Informat Sci, Bloomington, IN 47405 USA.
J9 J DOC
UT ISI:000082504700002
ER

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