Comparative Analysis of Search Engines on Information Retrieval by Undergraduate Students: ( A Case Study of Federal University of Technology Minna, Niger State)

Abstract

The study was designed to examine the Comparative Analysis of Search Engines Utilization among Undergraduates, using the students of the Federal University of Technology, Minna as a case study. Three research questions were raised and answered. The instrument used for data collection was validated research-made questionnaire christened; Undergraduate Students Comparative Search Engines in Usage Analysis Inventory Questionnaire (USCSEUAIQ), with a reliability index of 0.68. a sample size of 200 respondents was the population of the study, with a set of 40 drawn randomly from 5 departments; Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Library and Information Technology Mathematics/Computer, Microbiology and the Physics/Electronics. The two campuses of Bosso and Gidan Kwano respectively participated. The simple percentage analysis was used to analyse the data generated by this study. The analysis revealed that Web search technology had been evolving very rapidly and will continue to evolve. The analysis revealed that students tends to have more confidence in their search engine of choice than in their own ability to formulate a query that will return their desired results. This study reveals that Google is remarkably better than Yahoo MSN search engines and is most widely used presently. The study concludes that speed; relevance an effectiveness determines which internet search engine to use.