Analyse av søkelogger for bedre søkemuligheter i elektroniske ordbøker

Resumé

Analysis of search logs from on-line dictionaries can provide valuable insights into the behaviour, strategies and competence of dictionary users. This article presents a closer look at the search log for the electronic version of Bokmålsordboka from 11 months in 2007. We studied the logs by manually classifying random samples of unsuccesful queries. The data indicate that many users do not separate between dictionaries and other kinds of reference sources. Several of the unsuccessful queries would succeed if a spell cheque were added to the search interface. On the other hand, log files give valuable information to the lexicographers: identifying shortcomings in the lemma list and organising the information types in the dictionary.