An Introduction to Search Engines and Web Navigation [Paperback]

This book is a second edition, updated and expanded to explain the technologies that help us find information on the web.  Search engines and web navigation tools have become ubiquitous in our day to day use of the web as an information source, a tool for commercial transactions and a social computing tool. Moreover, through the mobile web we have access to the web's services when we are on the move.  This book demystifies the tools that we use when interacting with the web, and gives the reader a detailed overview of where we are and where we are going in terms of search engine and web navigation technologies.PREFACE.

LIST OF FIGURES.

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION.

1.1 Brief Summary of Chapters.

1.2 Brief History of Hypertext and the Web.

1.3 Brief History of Search Engines.

CHAPTER 2 THE WEB AND THE PROBLEM OF SEARCH.

2.1 Some Statistics.

2.2 Tabular Data Versus Web Data.

2.3 Structure of the Web.

2.4 Information Seeking on the Web.

2.5 Informational, Navigational, and Transactional Queries.

2.6 Comparing Web Search to Traditional Information Retrieval.

2.7 Local Site Search Versus Global Web Search.

2.8 Difference Between Search and Navigation.

CHAPTER 3 THE PROBLEM OF WEB NAVIGATION.

3.1 Getting Lost in Hyperspace and the Navigation Problem.

3.2 How Can the Machine Assist in User Search and Navigation.

3.3 Trails Should be First Class Objects.

3.4 Enter Markov Chains and Two Interpretations of Its Probabilities.

3.5 Conflict Between Web Site Owner and Visitor.

3.6 Conflict Between Semantics of Web Site alcÒ