A comparative study on the indexing and ranking of the content objects including the MARCXML and Dublin Core's metadata elements by general search engines

• Published in: Electronic library 2012-01, Vol.30 (4), p.480-491
• Main Authors: Mahdi Taheri, Sayyed, Hariri, Nadjla
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Comparative Analysis; Comparisons; Digital libraries; Dublin Core; Dublin Core Format; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Extensible Markup Language; Indexing; Information and communication sciences; Information processing and retrieval; Information retrieval. Man machine relationship; Information science. Documentation; Internet; Metadata; Ranking; Ratings and rankings; Research process. Evaluation; Sciences and techniques of general use; Search engines; Statistics; Syntax; Web search engines; Web sites; Websites; XML; XML (Document markup language)
• ISSN: 0264-0473; 1758-616X
• DOI: 10.1108/02640471211252193

Purpose - The purpose of this research was to assess and compare the indexing and ranking of XML-based content objects containing MARCXML and XML-based Dublin Core (DCXML) metadata elements by general search engines (Google and Yahoo!), in a comparative analytical study.Design methodology approach - One hundred XML content objects in two groups were analyzed: those with MARCXML elements (50 records) and those with DCXML (50 records) published on two web sites (www.dcmixml.islamicdoc.org and www.marcxml.islamicdoc.org).The web sites were then introduced to the Google and Yahoo! search engines.Findings - The indexing of metadata records and the difference between their indexing and ranking were examined using descriptive statistics and a non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test. The findings show that the visibility of content objects was possible by all their metadata elements. There was no significant difference between two groups' indexing, but a difference was observed in terms of ranking.Practical implications - The findings of this research can help search engine designers in the optimum use of metadata elements to improve their indexing and ranking process with the aim of increasing availability. The findings can also help web content object providers in the proper and efficient use of metadata systems.Originality value - This is the first research to examine the interoperability between XML-based metadata and web search engines, and compares the MARC format and DCMI in a research approach.