Using clickthrough data to optimize search result ranking : An evaluation of clickthrough data in terms of relevancy and efficiency

Abstract: Search engines are in a constant need for improvements as the rapid growth of information is affecting the search engines ability to return documents with high relevance. Search results are being lost in between pages and the search algorithms are being exploited to gain a higher ranking on the documents. This study attempts to minimize those two issues, as well as increasing the relevancy of search results by usage of clickthrough data to add another layer of weighting the search results. Results from the evaluation indicate that clickthrough data in fact can be used to gain more relevant search results.