Evaluation of English and Spanish Health Information on the Internet

Table 2.3: Efficiency of Reaching Relevant Content, by Search Engine

Search Engine Total Number of Links on First Results Page
(4 Medical Conditions)
Number of Relevant Links from First Results Page(%) Percentage of Pages with Relevant Content Reached from Selected Relevant Links** Percentage of Pages with Relevant Content Reached in One Click from Selected Relevant Links**
English Engines 3735 1265 (34%) 59 31
Altavista 282 142 (50%) 35-- 22
Ask Jeeves 1198 299 (25%) -- 68 48++
Direct Hit 302 129(43%) ++ 38-- 10--
Excite 232 61 (26%) -- 60 47++
Google 163 51 (31%) 74++ 23
Goto 344 155 (45%) ++ 43-- 25
Lycos 353 132 (37%) 50 18
Metacrawler 384 153 (40%) ++ 70 22
Northern Light 241 55 (23%) -- 88++ 43
Yahoo 236 88 (37%) 67 52++
Spanish Engines 1685 296 (18%) 63 38
Quepasa 283 52 (18%) 59 18--
Te Respondo 853 105 (12%) -- 78++ 60++
Yahoo Espanol 181 63 (35%) ++ 66 45
Yupi 368 76 (21%) 49-- 28

++Statistically better performance than the mean of other search engines within language (p<=0.05)

--Statistically lower performance than the mean of other search engines within language (p<=0.05)

**Assuming randomly selected relevant links are representative of all relevant links.


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Chapter 2