Retrieval effectiveness on the web

Search engines play an essential role in the usability of Internet-based information systems and without them the web would certainly break down or, at the very least would develop at a much slower rate. Our main objective is to analyze and evaluate the retrieval effectiveness of various indexing and searching strategics on a new web text collection, using a rigorous evaluation methodology. Our second aim is to describe and evaluate different preprocessing techniques that might be implemented in order to improve retrieval effectiveness. As a third objective, this paper will evaluate whether or not hyperlinks may serve as useful sources of evidence in improving retrieval algorithms. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.