WebSifter: An Ontological Web-Mining Agent for E-Business

: The World Wide Web provides access to a great deal of information on a vast array of subjects. A user can begin a search for information by selecting a Web page and following the embedded links from page to page looking for clues to the desired information. An alternative method is to use one of the Web-based search engines to select the Web pages that refer to the general subject of the information desired. In either case, a vast amount of information is retrieved. The quantity can be overwhelming, and much of the information may be marginally relevant or completely irrelevant to the user's request. We present a methodology, architecture, and proof-of-concept prototype for query construction and results analysis that provides the user with a ranking of choices based on the user's determination of importance. The user initially designs the query with assistance from the user's profile, a thesaurus, and previously constructed queries acting as a taxonomy of the informat...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2001
• Where: DS
• Authors: Anthony Scime, Larry Kerschberg
• Keywords: Database, DS 2001, Information, User, Web Pages