Which Search Engine is the Best?
The two search engines we chose were…
Microsoft Bing
Ambiguous Search: "apple"
Google:
- Google shows only the Apple website on the website search but shows pictures of actual apples on an image search.
Microsoft Bing:
- Bing shows the Apple website on the website search but shows both the Apple logo and pictures of apples on the image search.
- More repeats, which means less clustering since we see repeats instead of fewer representatives of a cluster?
Less Ambiguous Search: "Dixon Ticonderoga Pencils"
Google:
- Google shows 20 different websites either about the company, listings online, or reviews of Dixon Ticonderoga pencils.
Microsoft Bing:
- Bing shows fewer online shopping listings and more websites about the brand, including the Wikipedia page.
Overall:
- As far as precision goes, both search engines returned websites only pertaining to Dixon Ticonderoga Pencils, making both of them equal for this search.
- 20/20 & 20/20
Can You Calculate the Recall?
You could calculate recall based on taking a sample like the top 20 and counting how many results pertain to the search input. To get the full picture, having the information on the number of websites on the database would be the best-case scenario for calculating recall, which most search engines do not make public.