Research Article

The effect of user intent on the stability of search engine results

  1. Mark Truran1,
  2. Jan-Felix Schmakeit2,
  3. Helen Ashman2

Article first published online: 6 MAY 2011

DOI: 10.1002/asi.21550

Issue

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology

Volume 62, Issue 7, pages 1276–1287, July 2011

Additional Information

How to Cite

Truran, M., Schmakeit, J.-F. and Ashman, H. (2011), The effect of user intent on the stability of search engine results. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci., 62: 1276–1287. doi: 10.1002/asi.21550

Author Information

  1. 1

    School of Computing, Teesside University, TS1 3BA, United Kingdom

  2. 2

    School of Computer and Information Science, Mawson Lakes, University of South Australia, SA 5095, Australia

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 17 JUN 2011
  2. Article first published online: 6 MAY 2011
  3. Manuscript Revised: 16 MAR 2011
  4. Manuscript Accepted: 16 MAR 2011
  5. Manuscript Received: 5 JAN 2011

SEARCH

SEARCH BY CITATION

ARTICLE TOOLS

View Full Article (HTML) Get PDF (3369K)

Abstract

Previous work has established that search engine queries can be classified according to the intent of the searcher (i.e., why is the user searching, what specifically do they intend to do). In this article, we describe an experiment in which four sets of queries, each set representing a different user intent, are repeatedly submitted to three search engines over a period of 60 days. Using a variety of measurements, we describe the overall stability of the search engine results recorded for each group. Our findings suggest that search engine results for informational queries are significantly more stable than the results obtained using transactional, navigational, or commercial queries.

View Full Article (HTML) Get PDF (3369K)