Introducing the User-over-Ranking Hypothesis

The User-over-Ranking hypothesis states that rather the user herself than a web search engine’s ranking algorithm can help to improve retrieval performance. The means are longer queries that provide additional keywords. Readers who take this hypothesis for granted should recall the fact that virtually no user and none of the search index providers consider its implications. For readers who feel insecure about the claim, our paper gives empirical evidence.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2011
• Where: ECIR
• Authors: Benno Stein, Matthias Hagen
• Keywords: ECIR 2011, Hypothesis States, Index Providers, Information Technology, Web Search Engine