Search

This article critically examines four Google search products (Google Advanced Search, Google News Advanced Search, Google Books Advanced Search, and Google Advanced Scholar Search) and shows how each uses metadata to enhance or improve search results. In addition, the article shows how metadata can increase search precision and recall in information discovery systems. From a library perspective, this article analyzes some of the metadata-enabled features of Google's advanced search pages and compares these features to those found in a typical online library catalog. From a serials perspective, Google News Advanced Search demonstrates how Google indexes news websites, sites that are essentially continuing resources. As Google incorporates more and more metadata functionality into its advanced search pages, they increasingly begin to function more like online library catalogs and less like search pages found in a traditional Internet search engine. The simple search box has many limitations, and like libraries, Google is increasingly creating and offering metadata-enabled search features that improve search precision and recall in its products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on Google, an internet search engine company with emphasis on the dynamics of its mechanism which allows its users to access information on any topic anywhere and anytime. The author argues that the growing number of information available in the internet render internet users to rely on search engines for their information need. However, the author contends that one of the most significant issue concerning electronic information is its quality rather than its quantity as proven by experts in information technology.