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Accessibility and Distribution of Information on the Web
Steve Lawrence and Lee Giles
Accessibility and Distribution of Information on the Web
Steve Lawrence and Lee Giles
This page summarizes our study in the journal Nature:
"Accessibility of information on the web", Nature, Vol. 400, pp. 107-109, 1999.
Send email: lawrence at necmail.com to request a copy (no cost). We would be
interested to know where you heard about the study.
Frequently Asked Questions Previous Study Publications Home
@Article{ lawrence99accessibility,
author = "Steve Lawrence and C. Lee Giles",
title = "Accessibility of Information on the Web",
journal = "Nature",
volume = "400",
pages = "107--109",
year = "1999"}
Search
engine
coverage
has
decreased
Search engine coverage relative to the estimated
size of the publicly indexable web has decreased
substantially since December 97, with no engine
indexing more than about 16% of the estimated
size of the publicly indexable web. (Note that
many queries can be satisfied with a relatively
small database).
Unequal
access
Search engines are typically more likely to index
sites that have more links to them (more 'popular'
sites). They are also typically more likely to
index US sites than non-US sites (AltaVista is an
exception), and more likely to index commercial
sites than educational sites.
Out of date Indexing of new or modified pages by just one of
the major search engines can take months.
Information
distribution
83% of sites contain commercial content and 6%
contain scientific or educational content. Only
1.5% of sites contain pornographic content.
Accessibility and Distribution of Information on the Web [Steve Lawrence, Lee Giles, NEC Research Institute]
http://wwwmetrics.com/ (1 de 2) [27/10/2003 17:57:41]
800 million
pages
The publicly indexable web contains an
estimated 800 million pages as of February 1999,
encompassing about 15 terabytes of information
or about 6 terabytes of text after removing
HTML tags, comments, and extra whitespace.
Low
metadata
use
The simple HTML "keywords" and "description"
metatags are only used on the homepages of 34%
of sites. Only 0.3% of sites use the Dublin Core
metadata standard.
The web is transforming society, and the search engines are an important part of the process. The web
and search engines represent a significant improvement for communication, providing efficient access to
an increasing amount of information. However there are limitations to the current search engines,
improvements to which may help to maximize the benefits of the web.
85% of users use search engines to find information (GVU survey). Consumers use search engines to
locate and buy goods or to research many decisions (such as choosing a vacation destination, medical
treatment or election vote). However, the search engines are currently lacking in comprehensive and
timeliness, and do not index sites equally. The current state of search engines can be compared to a
phone book which is updated irregularly, is biased toward listing more popular information, and has most
of the pages ripped out.
Search engine indexing and ranking may have economic, social, political, and scientific effects. For
example, indexing and ranking of online stores can substantially effect economic viability; delayed
indexing of scientific research can lead to the duplication of work; and delayed or biased indexing may
affect social or political decisions.
For more details request: lawrence at necmail.com a copy of the Nature article.
Accessibility and Distribution of Information on the Web [Steve Lawrence, Lee Giles, NEC Research Institute]
http://wwwmetrics.com/ (2 de 2) [27/10/2003 17:57:41]