MEASURING THE IDENTIFICATION CAPABILITY OF ACRONYMS ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB: A COMPARATIVE STUDY
Keywords:
Web Retrieval, Acronyms, RankingAbstract
Many people in Hungary use the Web to obtain information from public institutions and organizations. Because these users typically do not know the URL of the desired institution’s home page, they use a Web search engine and the acronym of the institution is used as query to get there. Users prefer using acronyms because they usually do not know the full names of the institutions exactly. Acronyms are easy to remember and are extensively used in media and by people in everyday life. In this paper results from an analysis of the usefulness of the acronyms of Hungarian higher educational institutions present on the Web, i.e., the ability of acronyms to identify their own institutions is reported. The usefulness of acronyms of general institutions is used as a comparison. The working hypothesis is that higher educational acronyms are more effective than general acronyms. The study confutes the assumption and shows that the majority of acronyms of higher educational institutions are not effective in identifying their own institution. Causes are presented, and possible remedies are suggested.
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