Retrieval effectiveness of image search engines

Date04 February 2019
Pages173-184
Published date04 February 2019
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/EL-07-2018-0142
AuthorAabid Hussain,Sumeer Gul,Tariq Ahmad Shah,Sheikh Shueb
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet
Retrieval eectiveness of
image search engines
Aabid Hussain
Department of Information, Government of J&K,
Jammu and Kashmir, India
Sumeer Gul
Department of Library and Information Science,
University of Kashmir, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Tariq Ahmad Shah
Central Library, Central University of Kashmir,
Srinagar, India, and
Sheikh Shueb
Central Library, Islamic University of Science and Technology, Pulwama,
Jammu and Kashmir, India
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this study is to explorethe retrieval effectiveness of three image search engines
(ISE) Google Images,Yahoo Image Search and Picsearch in terms of their image retrieval capability.It is an
effort to carry out a Craneldexperiment to know how efcient the commercial giants in the image search are
and how efcientan image specicsearch engine is.
Design/methodology/approach The keyword search feature of three ISEs Google images, Yahoo
Image Search and Picsearchwas exploited to make search with keyword captions of photos as query terms.
Selected top ten images were used to act as a testbed for the study, as imageswere searched in accordance
with featuresof the test bed. Features to be looked for includedsize (1200 800), format of images (JPEG/JPG)
and the rank of the originalimage retrieved by ISEs under study. To gauge the overall retrievaleffectiveness
in terms of set standards, only rst 50 result hits were checked. Retrieval efciency of select ISEs were
examinedwith respect to their precision and relative recall.
Findings Yahoo Image Search outscores Google Images and Picsearch both in terms of precision and
relative recall. Regardingother criteria image size, image format and image rank in search results,Google
Images is ahead of others.
Research limitations/implications The study only takes into consideration basic image search
feature,i.e. text-based search.
Practical implications The study implies that image search engines should focus on relevant
descriptions. The studyevaluated text-based image retrieval facilities and thereby offersa choice to users to
select bestamong the available ISEs for their use.
Originality/value The study provides an insightinto the effectiveness of the three ISEs. The study is
one of the few studies to gauge retrieval effectiveness of ISEs. Study also produced key ndings that are
important for all ISE users and researchers and the Web image searchindustry. Findings of the study will
also prove usefulfor search engine companies to improve their services.
Keywords Information retrieval, Image retrieval, Image search engines, Retrieval effectiveness,
Text-based image retrieval
Paper type Research paper
Eectiveness
of image
search engines
173
Received23 July 2018
Revised19 November 2018
8 January2019
Accepted24 January 2019
TheElectronic Library
Vol.37 No. 1, 2019
pp. 173-184
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-07-2018-0142
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm

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