Qualitative ranking of Persian and non-Persian search engines in information retrieval of Islamic subjects

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the quality of the content of web pages in the Islamic domain retrieved by Persian and non Persian search engines. Methodology:This was an applied research carried out through descriptive survey. A self-developed checklist was used to gather the needed data. The sample population of this research consisted of three categories: 1. Parsijoo, Yooz, Google and Yahoo search engines; 2. five keywords searched in these search engines; 3. the first ten hits retrieved by the search engines. 14 experts in Islamic fields were hired to evaluate the content quality of retrieved web pages. Findings: Results showed that there was no significant difference between search engines regarding the four criteria except for the links in which Google was ranked higher than others. Also, there was no significant difference between the four search engines for each of the general and specialized statements. Among the specialized statements, there was a significant difference only in eight statements of two criteria of “links” and “bios”. According to the mean values of the ranks, the priority of search engines was as follows: Google, Yooz, Parsijoo and Yahoo. Another finding of the study showed that there was a significant difference between the general and specialized statements in each search engine regarding the content quality of retrieved web pages. Also, there was no significant difference between search engines to the extent of the content quality of web pages. Conclusion: In order to develop the ideal search engine in Persian with an emphasis on Iranian- Islamic identity, the government investments as well as cooperation among interested organizations are essential.