Grid-based Evaluation Metrics for Web Image Search

Abstract

Compared to general web search engines, web image search engines display results in a different way. In web image search, results are typically placed in a grid-based manner rather than a sequential result list. In this scenario, users can view results not only in a vertical direction but also in a horizontal direction. Moreover, pagination is usually not (explicitly) supported on image search search engine result pages (SERPs), and users can view results by scrolling down without having to click a “next page” button. These differences lead to different interaction mechanisms and user behavior patterns, which, in turn, create challenges to evaluation metrics that have originally been developed for general web search. While considerable effort has been invested in developing evaluation metrics for general web search, there has been relatively little effort to construct grid-based evaluation metrics.