An estimation of users awareness about features and functionality of search engines

摘要

The influence of search engines on today's online world is immeasurable and their influence touches every domain. Search engines give access to a vast ocean of information. It is thus important to recognize the power of search engines but more importantly to understand the extent of user ability to exercise control over it. This research work aims at determining users' awareness about Search Engines' features and functionality on different parameters of evaluation. The research work also introduces the concept of misleading factor in search engines. The authors present a method to analyze and evaluate these parameters based on an experiment which was conducted on working professionals employed in various domains like software companies, banks, law firms, educational institutes, Government etc. The sample of the study has 120 working professionals working in different domains.