Fwd: The Holes in the Web

[Scott Bennett <scott.bennett@YALE.EDU>]

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>Date: Fri, 09 Jul 1999 09:10:15 -0400
>To: scott.bennett@yale.edu, danuta.nitecki@yale.edu,
>        Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>
>From: Dan Updegrove <daniel.updegrove@yale.edu>
>Subject: Fwd: The Holes in the Web
>Cc: philip.long@yale.edu
>
>An important issue for scholars and librarians, methinks. -- Dan
>
>
>>Date: 9 Jul 1999 00:57:05 -0400
>>From: "pjk" <peter.kindlmann@yale.edu>
>>Subject: The Holes in the Web
>>To: "EAS-INFO List" <eas-info@entity.eng.yale.edu>
>>List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:leave-eas-info-514H@lists.eng.yale.edu>
>>Reply-To: "EAS-INFO List" <eas-info@entity.eng.yale.edu>
>>
>>Subject:   The Holes in the Web
>>
>>(from NewsScan Daily, 8 July 1999 ("Above The Fold"))
>>
>>MOST OF THE WEB'S WIDE WORLD IS OFF THE MAP
>>A study by the NEC Research Institute has found that the vast
>>majority of 600 million Web pages open to the public are not
>>indexed by search engines. The report -- which be can be found at
>>http://www.wwwmetrics.com/ -- says the top search engines in terms
>>of coverage are Northern Light (covering 16% of the Web), Snap
>>(15.5%), AltaVista (15.5%), Hotbot (11.3%). Other search engine
>>coverage figures are:  Microsoft (8.5%), Infoseek (8%), Google
>>(7.8%), Yahoo (7.4%), Excite (5.6%), Lycos (2.5%), and Euroseek
>>(2.2%).  The search engines seem to be biased toward sites that
>>receive the most traffic, and use a site's popularity to decide
>>whether it should be indexed.  The study also says that 83% of the
>>Web now contains commercial content, 6% offers information of
>>scientific or educational value, and 1.5% is focused on
>>pornography.  (New York Times 8 Jul 99)
>>http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/07/circuits/articles/08geek.html
>>
>>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>>[Well, they do call it a Web rather than a fabric. These
>>percentages are even lower than the 20% for Alta Vista I reported
>>to this list a couple of years ago, at
>>http://www.yale.edu/engineering/eng-info/msg00229.html
>>The dominance of commercial content, and search engine bias based
>>on traffic, or even payment for preference, implies the continued
>>cultivation of trusted sources, library-fashion, and the not just
>>continuing but rising need for 'information mediators', i.e.
>>librarians. This is a sentiment represented by Yahoo, much of whose
>>material is selected by their staff of about 300, rather than
>>collected by automated nocturnal drag nets. That makes a Yahoo
>>percentage mean something else than Alta Vista's. --PJK]
>>
>>
>>---
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>
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