This is a preprint of an article published in the
Journal of Information Science Vol. 32, No. 2, 131-148
(2006). This study measures the frequency in which
search engines update their indices. Therefore, 38
websites that are updated on a daily basis were
analysed within a time-span of six weeks. The analysed
search engines were Google, Yahoo and MSN. We find that
Google performs best overall with the most pages
updated on a daily basis, but only MSN is able to
update all pages within a time-span of less than 20
days. Both other engines have outliers that are quite
older. In terms of indexing patterns, we find different
approaches at the different engines: While MSN shows
clear update patterns, Google shows some outliers and
the update process of the Yahoo index seems to be quite
chaotic. Implications are that the quality of different
search engine indices varies and not only one engine
should be used when searching for current content.
%0 Journal Article
%1 LWM05
%A Lewandowski, Dirk
%A Wahlig, Henry
%A Meyer-Bautor, Gunnar
%D 2005
%J Journal of Information Science,
%K google search searchengine www03 wwwbook wwwkap17
%N 2
%P 131-148
%T The freshness of Web search engine databases
%V 32
%X This is a preprint of an article published in the
Journal of Information Science Vol. 32, No. 2, 131-148
(2006). This study measures the frequency in which
search engines update their indices. Therefore, 38
websites that are updated on a daily basis were
analysed within a time-span of six weeks. The analysed
search engines were Google, Yahoo and MSN. We find that
Google performs best overall with the most pages
updated on a daily basis, but only MSN is able to
update all pages within a time-span of less than 20
days. Both other engines have outliers that are quite
older. In terms of indexing patterns, we find different
approaches at the different engines: While MSN shows
clear update patterns, Google shows some outliers and
the update process of the Yahoo index seems to be quite
chaotic. Implications are that the quality of different
search engine indices varies and not only one engine
should be used when searching for current content.
@article{LWM05,
abstract = {This is a preprint of an article published in the
Journal of Information Science Vol. 32, No. 2, 131-148
(2006). This study measures the frequency in which
search engines update their indices. Therefore, 38
websites that are updated on a daily basis were
analysed within a time-span of six weeks. The analysed
search engines were Google, Yahoo and MSN. We find that
Google performs best overall with the most pages
updated on a daily basis, but only MSN is able to
update all pages within a time-span of less than 20
days. Both other engines have outliers that are quite
older. In terms of indexing patterns, we find different
approaches at the different engines: While MSN shows
clear update patterns, Google shows some outliers and
the update process of the Yahoo index seems to be quite
chaotic. Implications are that the quality of different
search engine indices varies and not only one engine
should be used when searching for current content.},
added-at = {2008-12-05T15:40:33.000+0100},
author = {Lewandowski, Dirk and Wahlig, Henry and Meyer-Bautor, Gunnar},
bibsource = {OAI-PMH server at dlist.sir.arizona.edu},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2093aa29315971b72e2c7e971d3f62b0e/lysander07},
interhash = {f61de5a55c79d685bf0c4aa42567916d},
intrahash = {093aa29315971b72e2c7e971d3f62b0e},
journal = {Journal of Information Science,},
keywords = {google search searchengine www03 wwwbook wwwkap17},
number = 2,
oai = {oai:DLIST.OAI2:1134},
pages = {131-148},
subject = {World Wide Web; Information Science; Information
Retrieval; Internet; Information Systems},
timestamp = {2009-01-27T15:24:50.000+0100},
title = {The freshness of Web search engine databases},
volume = 32,
year = 2005
}