Can search engines be used as tools for web‐link analysis? A critical view

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Abstract
The paper investigates the problems of using commercial search engines for web‐link research and attempts to clarify the nature of the problems involved in the use of these engines. The research finds that search engines are highly variable in the results they produce, are limited in the search functions they offer, have poorly and/or incorrectly documented functions, use search logics that are opaque, and change the search functions they offer over time. The limitations which are inherent in commercial search engines should cause researchers to have reservations about any conclusions that rely on these tools as primary data‐gathering instruments. The short‐comings are market‐driven rather than inherent properties of the web or of web‐searching technologies. Improved functionalities are within the technical capabilities of search engine programmers and could be made available to the research community. The findings also offer mild support for the validity of the connection between web links and citations as analogues of intellectual linkage.

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