Web search selection criteria of foreign‐language searchers

Abstract

Searchers today are often faced with searching in a language that is not their native language. Searching in a foreign language will necessarily differ from searching in a native language. In this paper we examine one step of the foreign-language searching process: selection decisions about web search results. We report the results of an analysis of participant statements about why a certain web result was selected by 15 Hungarian and 15 Chinese native language speakers who searched in English. Our results confirm selection criteria from the literature and identify new selection criteria that foreign-language searchers pay attention to when selecting search results.