Example queries

Click the links in the left column to search

Normal queries

enron Searching for Enron returns many results. Notice how much the total result count varies between the different engines.
enron logo Try to find the Enron logo. Notice how some engines don’t index pictures, and thus can’t answer this query with any meaningful results.
“This message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed” A phrase that is a common legal disclaimer. It’s a long query, containing several stop words. Some engines have problems searching or highlight this query.
Greenpeace Belgium Try to find a letter from Greenpeace in Belgium. Notice that it is two identical copy’s of this letter. Some search engines support duplicate detection, and will inform you about copy’s, other will show the letters as separate hits.
desert sky report Try to find the reports for the Desert Sky project.
Doug Birdsall party Try to find the driving directions to Doug Birdsall’s new house party.
gas base contract Try to find the current base contract for gas sales. Notice how some engines lists the word files title, but other the file name.

Speling tests

Test of spelling suggestions

dynegi takeover Wrong spelling of “dynegy”[1].
dynagy takover Wrong spelling of “dynegy”[1] and “takeover”.
confidensial Wrong spelling of “confidential”
 pipline Wrong spelling of pipeline. Has some hits. Notice how much the total result count varies between the different engines.

Problematic queries

Queries known to cause problems

the is at which and on Some short words that is vary common in the English alphabet (commonly refereed to as stop words). To answer this query the search engine must marge several large indexes, and is a good indicator on raw performance. Some engines remove stop words to better performance. If this words is removed you wan’t be able to search for names such as ‘The Who’, ‘The The’, or ‘Take That’.
“The Who”  Common stop words test.
“to be or not to be” Can we find the hamlet.html document with a query that contains only stop words?
enron enron enron enron enron enron enron enron enron enron enron enron enron enron enron enron Searching for a common word multiple times, may take a long time on some search engine because it has to do many merges of it’s index. The long query breaks gui on some engines.
obame Should return a single document. A hit indicates that the whole dataset is crawled.

 

1: Dynegy Inc. is a large owner and operator of power plants and a player in the natural gas liquids and coal business. They tried to takeover Enron in 2001.