Supporting non-English web searching: an experiment on the Spanish business and the Arabic medical intelligence portals

Although non-English-speaking online populations are growing rapidly, support for searching non-English Web content is much weaker than for English content. Prior research has implicitly assumed English to be the primary language used on the Web, but this is not the case for many non-English-speaking regions. This research proposes a language-independent approach that uses meta-searching, statistical language processing, summarization, categorization, and visualization techniques to build high-quality domain-specific collections and to support searching and browsing of non-English information. Based on this approach, we developed SBizPort and AMedPort for the Spanish business and Arabic medical domains respectively. Experimental results showed that the portals achieved significantly better search accuracy, information quality, and overall satisfaction than benchmark search engines. Subjects strongly favored the portals' search and browse functionality and user interface. This research thus contributes to developing and validating a useful approach to non-English Web searching and providing an example of supporting decision-making in non-English Web domains.