Comparing Google to Ask-a-Librarian Service for Answering Factual and Topical Questions

Vakkari, Pertti; Taneli, Mari

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-04346-8_34

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 13 publications

(29 reference statements)

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“…Findings show that just under half of origins are useful (43.7%) and over three-quarters of trails have useful pages (82.8%). This shows that the likelihood of finding a useful page via navigation is high, a finding supported by previous work on post-query search behavior [23]. This may also be because origins are search results, typically the starting points for a task, and hence have rapid click-though [17][21].…”

Section: Different Metricssupporting

confidence: 73%

Studying trailfinding algorithms for enhanced web search

Singla

White

Huang

2010

Proceedings of the 33rd International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval

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Search engines return ranked lists of Web pages in response to queries. These pages are starting points for post-query navigation, but may be insufficient for search tasks involving multiple steps. Search trails mined from toolbar logs start with a query and contain pages visited by one user during post-query navigation. Implicit endorsements from many trails can enhance result ranking. Rather than using trails solely to improve ranking, it may also be worth providing trail information directly to users. In this paper, we quantify the benefit that users currently obtain from trailfollowing and compare different methods for finding the best trail for a given query and each top-ranked result. We compare the relevance, topic coverage, topic diversity, and utility of trails selected using different methods, and break out findings by factors such as query type and origin relevance. Our findings demonstrate value in trails, highlight interesting differences in the performance of trailfinding algorithms, and show we can find best-trails for a query that outperform the trails most users follow. Findings have implications for enhancing Web information seeking using trails.

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Section: Different Metricssupporting

confidence: 73%

Studying trailfinding algorithms for enhanced web search

Singla

White

Huang

2010

Proceedings of the 33rd International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval

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“…Borrowing books, fiction in particular is likely to be affected differently compared to reference services by the internet. For example, although Vakkari and Taneli (2009) have shown that a digital Ask-a-Librarian service run by public libraries outperforms Google in answering factual and topical questions, the popularity of Ask-a-Librarian sites in the US is relatively low (OCLC, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internet use increases the odds of using the public library

Vakkari

2012

Journal of Documentation

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Purpose -The functional equivalence hypothesis suggests that a new communication medium will replace those activities that most closely perform the same functions for users as did the established media. There is scarce empirical evidence whether use of the internet displaces use of the public library. This survey aims to explore how the use of the internet is associated with the use of the public library for studying, work and business, everyday activities, and leisure activities. The author also studies which factors in addition to internet use predict the use of public libraries for these purposes. Design/methodology/approach -The data is based on a nationwide representative survey of the adult population in Finland aged 15-79. The author used binary logistic regression analysis for modelling and predicting library use. Findings -The results show that the use of the internet is positively associated with the use of public libraries. Those using the internet tend also to use the public library. Thus, the use of the internet does not replace the use of the public library, but merely complements it. It is found that the frequency of internet use and the number of books read are the strongest predictors of public library use. Originality/value -This is the first study to show that the use of the internet for studying, work and business, everyday activities, and leisure activities is not replacing public library use for the same purposes, but merely complementing it. IntroductionThere is a plethora of studies on public libraries and the internet. Those focusing on the use of public libraries and the internet explore the use of computers and the internet in the libraries (e.g. Becker et al., 2010) or how the library is used compared to other information channels like the internet (Estabrook et al., 2007; OCLC, 2010). These studies are typically descriptive. Distributions of internet use are compared with the distributions of other information channels used like the public library. As far as we know, there is only one study (D'Elia et al., 2002), which has conceptualised the use of the internet as an independent variable explaining the variation of the use of public library. Although the former studies may conclude how internet use influences public library use, they do not explicitly explain how the variation in the use of the internet is associated with the variation in the use of the public library.The internet is commonly seen as a threat to public library services. It provides a huge amount of information and effective tools for searching needed information. It is expected that the members of the audience compare information resources, services and tools provided by both suppliers and decide which activities best suit their needs (D'Elia et al., 2002;Estabrook et al., 2007; OCLC, 2010). The comparison may end up in the benefit of the internet, at least in the worst scenarios in libraries.

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“…Online question answering sites in particular have been the object of increasing evaluation. Some of the studies have also included public library reference services (Harper et al , 2008; Shachaf, 2009; Vakkari and Taneli, 2009).…”

Section: Related Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Vakkari and Taneli (2009) compared the extent to which Google retrieved correct answers to queries inferred from factual and topical requests in a digital Ask‐a‐Librarian service. These queries simulated typical web queries.…”

Section: Related Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is rare to evaluate search services by comparing them with different types, e.g. how search engines function compared to digital library services such as question answering or even retrieving information from a digital library (see Harper et al , 2008; Shachaf, 2009; Vakkari and Taneli, 2009). However it is necessary to evaluate search engines with other appropriate services such as those provided by libraries, because people may increasingly use search engines as surrogates for other information services.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comparing Google to a digital reference service for answering factual and topical requests by keyword and question queries

Vakkari

2011

Online Information Review

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Purpose -This paper seeks to evaluate to what extent Google retrieved correct answers to queries inferred from factual and topical requests in a digital Ask-a-Librarian service. Design/methodology/approach -In total, 100 factual and 100 topical questions were picked from a digital reference service run by public libraries. The inferred queries simulated average web queries. They were expressed as separate keywords and as questions. The top ten retrieval results were observed for each answer. The inspection was stopped when the first correct answer was identified. Findings -Google retrieved correct answers to 42 percent of the topical questions and 29 percent of factual questions by keyword queries. The performance of queries in question form was considerably weaker. The results concerning the characteristics of queries and retrieval effectiveness are also presented. Evaluations indicate that the public library reference services answered at least 55 percent of the questions correctly. Thus Google did not outperform the Ask-a-Librarian service. Originality/value -The study introduces a new way of evaluating search engines by comparing their performance with other related services such as an Ask-a-Librarian service.

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Comparing Google to Ask-a-Librarian Service for Answering Factual and Topical Questions

Cited by 4 publications

References 13 publications

Studying trailfinding algorithms for enhanced web search

Studying trailfinding algorithms for enhanced web search

Internet use increases the odds of using the public library

Comparing Google to a digital reference service for answering factual and topical requests by keyword and question queries

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