Performance evaluation of web search engines in image retrieval: An experimental study

Abstract

This experimental study used a checklist to evaluate the performance of seven search engines consisting of four Image General Search Engines (IGSEs) (namely, Google, Yahoo DuckDuckGo and Bing), and three Image Specialized Search Engines (ISSEs) (namely, Flicker, PicSearch, and GettyImages) in image retrieval. The findings indicated that the recall average of Image General Search Engines and Image Specialized Search Engines was found to be 76.32% and 24/51% with the precision average of 82/08% and 32/21%, respectively. As the results showed, Yahoo, Google and DuckDuckGo ranked at the top in image retrieval with no significant difference. However, a remarkable superiority with almost 50% difference was observed between the general and specialized image search engines. It was also found that an intense competition existed between Google, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo in image retrieval. The overall results can provide valuable insights for new search engine designers and users in choosing the appropriate search engines for image retrieval. Moreover, the results obtained through the applied equations could be used in assessing and evaluating other search tools, including search engines.