Evaluating the Effectiveness of Persian Search Engines Based on a Dialectical Paradigm: Parsijoo, Yooz, and Rismoon

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Parsijoo, Yooz, and Rismoon search engines to determine the efficient search engine to retrieve relevant documents to users. Methodology: This research was an applied evaluative study. The population of this research consists of three sections: Persian search engines, simulated work tasks (thematic title), and participants (students). In this study, three search engines, Parsijoo, Yooz, and Rismoon, were selected for evaluation. Also, 32 subject headings were selected from the list of Persian subject headings, and then, based on them, simulated work tasks were compiled. 192 students of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad were asked to search the information created from the simulated work tasks in the relevant search engines, then copy the relevant URL and register it in the search form. The 192 students of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad were asked to enter the information required from the simulated work tasks in the relevant search engines, then copy the relevant URL and register it in the search form. Finally, when an URL was chosen more often by students as a relevant website, it was given a higher relevance score. Findings: Findings showed that the three search engines including Parsijoo, Yooz, and Rismoon had a significant difference in the metrics of normalized discounted cumulative gain, and precision, but no significant difference was observed between the three search engines in the recall metric. The general findings of the study also showed that the effectiveness (mean of normalized discounted cumulative gain, precision, and recall) of the search engines was significantly different. In addition, at a 95 percent confidence level, the effectiveness of Parsijoo about 42 percent to 45 percent; Yooz about 43 percent to 46 percent; and Rismoon about 15 percent to 17 percent are estimated. Our estimate indicates that the Rismoon search engine is performing poorly. Also, the effectiveness of Yooz search engine is slightly higher than Parsijoo search engine. Conclusion: Each of Parsijoo, Yooz, and Rismoon search engines has their own policies, capabilities and strategies; hence the effectiveness of each of them is different. Users are advised to use efficient search engine to get the information they want. In this regard, Yooz, Parsijoo, and Rismoon search engines are the most efficient, respectively. In addition, policymakers of Parsijoo, Yooz, and Rismoon search engines are also recommended revising hardware equipment, retrieval algorithms, user interfaces, and information display methods. Finally, it can be concluded that despite the low age of native search engines, the effectiveness of both Yooz and Parsijoo search engines is at a satisfactory level.