Query expansion is a method for improving retrieval performance by supplementing an original query with additional terms. Expansion can take place in the initial query formulation, the query reformulation stage of the online search, or both and can be performed manually, automatically, or interactively. Reviews current research on manual,…

Explains the use of bookmarks to access World Wide Web pages through the use of Netscape Navigator for Macintosh computers. Highlights include reordering the bookmark list; adding cascading menus; combining techniques by combining folders; changing names and alphabetizing; and sharing bookmarks via floppy disks. (LRW)

Ordered sets (OS) of documents are encountered more and more in information distribution systems, such as information retrieval systems. Classical similarity measures for ordinary sets of documents need to be extended to these ordered sets. This is done in this article using fuzzy set techniques. The practical usability of the OS-measures is…

Presents a mathematical definition of the probability-weighted amount of information (PWI), a measure of term specificity in documents that is based on an information-theoretic view of retrieval events. Corresponds with the term frequency-inverse document frequency (tf-idf) measures that are used in information retrieval systems. (Author/LRW)

Presents entirely automatic methods for gathering documents for a hypertext, for linking the set, and for annotating those connections with a description of the type (that is, the nature) of the link. Document linking is based on information retrieval similarity measures with adjustable levels of strictness. Evaluation problems are also…

Explains search engines that are used on the World Wide Web to find information on the Internet. Highlights include eight search engines with information on how to find the help screen; four "spiders" that conduct searches of several search engines; and four online sites for learning more about using search engines. (LRW)

Discusses methods of searching the World Wide Web and describes 10 Web sites for "panoramic" searching, 13 for "omnibus" searching, 4 for link-following packages, 4 for content delivery services, 1 for directed searching, and off-line Internet searching on Yellow Pages for the Web. (LRW)

Reviews the origins of post-coordinate searching and emphasizes that the focal point should be on the searcher, not on the item being indexed. Highlights include the history of the term information retrieval; edge notched punch cards; the "peek-a-boo" system; the Uniterm system; and using computers to search for information. (LRW)

Presents the architecture and algorithms behind Matchsimile, an approximate string matching lookup tool designed for extracting person and company names from large texts. Highlights include name formation rules, defining the search problem, system architecture, recognizing pattern words, recognizing whole patterns, and performance. (Author/MES)

Proposes a model of browsing-based conceptual information retrieval employing two different types of dictionaries, a global dictionary and a local dictionary. The documents are ranked by the conceptual closeness to a query, and are arranged in the form of a user's personal digital library. (Author/MES)

Describes research that was conducted to develop and evaluate techniques for identifying plagiarism, revisions, and different versions of online documents. Highlights include ranking; parsing; similarity measures; identity measures; fingerprinting documents; measuring effectiveness via recall and precision; and experiments on two document…

Proposes an approach to incorporate term similarity and inverse document frequency into a logical model of information retrieval. Highlights include document representation and matching; incorporating term similarity into the measure of distance; new algorithms for implementation; inverse document frequency; and logical versus classical models of…

Discusses the use of hyperlinks for improving information retrieval on the World Wide Web and proposes a general model for using hyperlinks based on Probabilistic Argumentation Systems. Topics include propositional logic, knowledge, and uncertainty; assumptions; using hyperlinks to modify document score and rank; and estimating the popularity of a…

Describes a user interface that provides global visualizations of large document sets to help users formulate the query that corresponds to their information needs. Highlights include concept hierarchies that users can browse to specify and refine information needs; knowledge discovery in databases and texts; and multidimensional modeling.…

Discussion of knowledge management for electronic data focuses on creating a high quality similarity ranking algorithm. Topics include similarity ranking and unstructured data management; searching, categorization, and summarization of documents; query evaluation; considering sentences in addition to keywords; and vector models. (LRW)