Problems with the use of web search engines to find results in foreign languages
| Pages | 668-672 |
| Date | 26 September 2008 |
| Published date | 26 September 2008 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520810914034 |
| Author | Dirk Lewandowski |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
AT THE SHARP END
Problems with the use of web
search engines to find results
in foreign languages
Dirk Lewandowski
Department of Information, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences,
Hamburg, Germany
Abstract
Purpose – This paper’s aim is to test the ability of the major search engines Google, Yahoo, MSN and
Ask to distinguish between German- and English-language documents.
Design/methodology/approach – A total of 50 queries using words common in both German and
English were submitted to the search engines. The advanced search option of language restriction was
used, once in German and once in English, and the first 20 results per engine in each language were
investigated.
Findings – While none of the search engines faced problems providing results in the language of the
interface that was used, both Google and MSN faced difficulties when the results were restricted to a
foreign language.
Research limitations/implications – Search engines were only tested in German and English.
There is only anecdotal evidence that the problems are the same with other languages.
Practical implications – Searchers should not use the language restriction in Google and MSN
when searching for foreign-language documents. Instead, searchers should use Yahoo or Ask.
If searching for foreign language documents in Google or MSN, the interface in the target language or
country should be used.
Originality/value – This study demonstrates a problem with search engines that has not been
previously investigated.
Keywords Worldwide web, Searchengines, Languages, Informationretrieval
Paper type Research paper
Introduction and literature review
Search engines offer many search options, usually through their advanced search
interfaces (Lewandowski, 2004a; Notess, 2006). While these options are not employed
often by the majority of users (Jansen and Spink, 2006; Machill et al., 2004;
Schmidt-Maenz and Koch, 2006), they frequently provide the only method for
successfully conducting certain searches. Information professionals, for example, rely
on advanced search options to conduct their research.
However, the problem of search features’ operational reliability is often overlooked.
While functions with few or no problems exist (such as restrictions to the top-level
domain), other functions that are relatively easy to apply do not work properly in some
major search engines (e.g. Boolean “OR” in Google – see Notess, 2000). With features
such as language restrictions, searches for related pages, content filter s and date
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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OIR
32,5
668
Refereed article received
14 February 2008
Approved for publication
19 April 2008
Online Information Review
Vol. 32 No. 5, 2008
pp. 668-672
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/14684520810914034
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