Microsoft Academic Search vs. Google Scholar

[Pikas, Christina K.]

My early comment as related to this forum is that it doesn't attempt
citations, I believe.  It looks at "authority", but I'm not exactly sure
how that works. See this interesting quote from their page:

How do you determine relevance? Are you using citation counts in the
relevance ranking?
We are determining relevance based on the following two areas, as
determined by a Microsoft algorithm:
# Quality of match of the search term with the content of the paper
# Authoritativeness of the paper.
Currently, we are not using citation count as a factor in determining
relevance. Among the many reasons that led us to this decision was the
fact that we wanted to have an accurate and credible citation count to
be used in the relevance ranking. User trust of the relevance ranking
algorithm requires a very credible, trusted citation count, and we will
revisit the inclusion of Microsoft derived citation count in the
relevance ranking algorithm at a later date as our technology improves
further.

It is encouraging, from a librarian standpoint, that they are working
with the Open URL resolvers -- even if JHU isn't included yet.

Christina K. Pikas, MLS
R.E. Gibson Library & Information Center
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Voice  240.228.4812 (Washington), 443.778.4812 (Baltimore)
Fax 443.778.5353



-----Original Message-----
From: ASIS&T Special Interest Group on Metrics
[mailto:SIGMETRICS at listserv.utk.edu] On Behalf Of Sloan, Bernie
Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 1:24 PM
To: SIGMETRICS at listserv.utk.edu
Subject: [SIGMETRICS] Microsoft Academic Search vs. Google Scholar


Microsoft is unveiling their "Academic Search" product, which looks to
be a competitor to Google Scholar, which some people compare to Web of
Science, CiteSeer, etc.

Just interested to see if anyone has any early comments...

>From today's online Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription
required):

Carlson, Scott. Challenging Google, Microsoft Unveils a Search Tool for
Online Scholarly Articles. Today's News. Chronicle of Higher Education.
April 12, 2005. (Subscription required).
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/04/2006041201t.htm

Also:

Lombardi, Candace. Microsoft reveals answer to Google Scholar. CNET
News. April 12, 2006.
http://tinyurl.com/ghrjd

And:

Sherman, Chris. Microsoft Launches Windows Live Academic Search. Search
Engine Watch. April 12, 2006.
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3598376

Bernie Sloan
Senior Information Systems Consultant
Consortium of Academic & Research Libraries in Illinois
616 E. Green Street, Suite 213
Champaign, IL  61820-5752

Phone: (217) 333-4895
Fax:   (217) 265-0454
E-mail: bernies at uillinois.edu