AMSTERDAM, 29 March 2003 – Elsevier (www.elsevier.com) has announced that its science-specific search engine, Scirus (www.scirus.com), has outperformed Google in usability testing in a study conducted by the Ergonomics Safety and Research Institute (ESRI) at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom. The study compared the relevance of search results spanning six subject areas in life, physical, social and health sciences. Scirus outperformed booth Google and Altavista in quality of content, search facilities and overall satisfaction.
Over 100 researchers from around the world were asked to define a personal search query relevant to their field of research. They performed the same personal search query using each of the three search engines. They were then asked to explore the three most useful looking results to see how well it satisfied their query. Scirus received top marks for quality of content and search functionality and 51% of the respondents chose Scirus as their preferred engine for science search.
"When asked which engine they would identify as their primary tool
for science search in the future the majority of uses chose Scirus," says Femke Markus, Product
Manager for Scirus. "This supports
what we’ve heard from users, once they experience the benefits of Scirus
first-hand it becomes their preferred starting point for scientific
searches.”
“Scirus
is competing well in the area of scientific, technical and medical literature,”
says Martin Mcguire, PhD, Principal Project Officer for ESRI. “With Scirus there’s a way to narrow your
search before your begin which the users really appreciated. When you’re looking for specific things
that’s quite useful.”
The
researchers sampled included pre and post-graduate students and faculty from 24
counties in North America, South America, DMEA and Asia Pacific regions.
About
ESRI
The
Ergonomics Safety and Research Institute (ESRI) is a world-renowned ergonomics
and human factors research institute with experts across a broad spectrum of
disciplines including advanced technology, physical ergonomics and health and
safety. Three centres carrying out pure and applied
research, consultancy, teaching and training. ESRI maintains its association with Loughborough University through the
Research School in Ergonomics and Human Factors.
Launched in April 2001, Scirus is the most
comprehensive science-specific search engine available on the Internet. Driven
by the latest in search engine technology, it covers more than 100 150 million
science-related pages and can pinpoint precise scientific information that
other search engines can not reach, including pdf files and peer reviewed
articles. Scirus has won several international awards including the Search
Engine Watch awards for Best Specialty Search Engine and a nomination for Best
Science Web Site for the prestigious Webby Awards.
About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical
information products and services. Working in partnership with the global
science and health communities, the company publishes more than 1,800 journals
and 2,200 new books per year, in addition to offering a suite of innovative
electronic products, such as ScienceDirect and MD Consult bibliographic databases, online reference works
and subject specific portals.
Elsevier is a global company headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and has offices worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc, a world-leading publisher and information provider. Operating in the science and medical, legal, education and business-to-business sectors, Reed Elsevier provides high-quality and flexible information solutions to users, with increasing emphasis on the Internet as a means of delivery. Reed Elsevier's ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).
# # #