This document was last modified on 10 April, 1999.
PERSONAL SEARCH ASSISTANT:
A Configurable Personal Meta Search Engine
P.R.Kaushik, Persistent Systems Private Ltd.,"Panini", 2A Senapati Bapat
Road, Pune 411016, India. kaushik@pspl.co.in
Dr. K. Narayana Murthy, Department of CIS, University of Hyderabad,Hyderabad
500 046, India
knmcs@uohyd.ernet.in
Keywords
Keywords : Meta Searching, World Wide Web, Search Engine.
Abstract
This paper presents Personal search assistant (PSA) as a model for Meta
searching on the World Wide Web. PSA differs from other conventional web
search architectures by the fact that the collection phase works offline,
updating a local repository instead of presenting results immediately to
the user. Typically using the PSA the user presents a query to the system
and terminates the session. The PSA works in the background constructing
and updating a virtual local web on the user system. This could take place
immediately or gradually over a couple of days, depending upon how the
system is configured. The local repository which is kept virtually independent
of the remaining part of the system, can be investigated at any time to
view results which have been updated or results from a previous search.
The resultant setup is more alike Push Technology but the resultant information
channels setup are more specific to user preferences and are not constrained
by service providers in Channels. The personalize agent a part of the PSA
works on constructing a user profile. The personalize agent gains from
the additional information available to it from user browsing patterns.
The agent makes suggestions to the user and looks for confirmation before
taking decisions and to reinforce its convictions about user preferences.
The Personal Search Assistant architecture provides a framework for improvements
in web searching and information retrieval with respect to resource allocation,
user effort and personalized searching.
[ Full Paper ] [ Presentation
] [ Proceedings ] [ AusWeb99
Home Page ]
AusWeb99, the Fifth Australian
World Wide Web Conference, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore
NSW 2480, Australia Email: AusWeb99@scu.edu.au