Silk from a Sow's Ear: Extracting Usable Structures from the Web

In its current implementation, the World-Wide Web lacks much of the explicit structure and strong typing found in many closed hypertext systems. While this property has directly fueled the explosive acceptance of the Web, it further complicates the already difficult problem of identifying usable structures and aggregates in large hypertext collections. These reduced structures, or localities, form the basis to simplifying visualizations of and navigation through complex hypertext systems. Much of the previous research into identifying aggregates utilize graph theoretic algorithms based upon structural topology, i.e., the linkages between items. Other research has focused on content analysis to form document collections. This paper presents our exploration into techniques that harness both the topology and textual similarity between items as well as integrate new analyses based upon actual usage of the Xerox's WWW space. Linear equations and spreading activation models are employe...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1996
• Where: CHI
• Authors: Peter Pirolli, James E. Pitkow, Ramana Rao
• Keywords: CHI 1996, Closed Hypertext Systems, Human Computer Interaction, Hypertext Systems, Large Hypertext Collections