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Measuring the efficiency of search engines: an application of data envelopment analysis

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  • Donald Lien
  • Yan Peng

Abstract

This paper adopted the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method to investigate the efficiency of several search engines. A query search on a search engine is modelled as a production process. The input and output vectors are defined and measured accordingly. We studied seven engines, Alta Vista, Excite, Hotbot, Lycos, Infoseek, Open Text, and WebCrawler and found that Alta Vista, Excite, Infoseek, and WebCrawler are efficient but the other three are not. Possible efficiency improvements are calculated.

Suggested Citation

  • Donald Lien & Yan Peng, 1999. "Measuring the efficiency of search engines: an application of data envelopment analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(12), pages 1581-1587.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:31:y:1999:i:12:p:1581-1587
    DOI: 10.1080/000368499323102
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Taewoo You & Hongmin Zi, 2007. "The economic crisis and efficiency change: evidence from the Korean construction industry," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(14), pages 1833-1842.

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