Let’s see how surfing history and bookmarks of a community of users can be exploited to search for information on the Web. Browsers discard most information sought by users through clicking, unless the information is deliberately book-marked. Even deliberate bookmarks are stored in a passive and isolated manner.

A browser-assistant prototype, called Memex, which addresses this issue, is now in the final stages of development in IIT, Mumbai. It will be made available from http://memex.cse.iitb.ernet.in by January 2001. Memex is a repository for both surfing history and bookmarks of a community of users. It is designed as a browsing assistant for individuals and groups with focused interests. It blurs the artificial distinction between browsing history and deliberate bookmarks. The glut of data generated as a result of Web browsing is analyzed in a number of ways at the individual and community levels. It is indexed not only by keywords but also according to the user’s view of topics, which lets the user recall topic-based browsing contexts by asking questions like— What trails was I following when I was last surfing about classical music? What are some popular pages related to my recent trail regarding cycling? What was the URL I visited six months back regarding compiler optimization at Rice University? What was the Web neighborhood I was surfing the last time I was looking for resources on classical music? How is my ISP bill divided into access for work, travel, news, hobby and entertainment? How does my bookmark folder structure map on to my organization? In a hierarchy of organizations (say, by region) who are the people who share my interest in recreational cycling most closely and are not likely to be computer professionals?

Conclusion

Information foraging is not about keyword level querying. Tomorrow’s search needs will be more ad-hoc in nature. As this happens and the Web evolves from a structural Web to a semantic Web, newer ideas and systems will need to continue the process of innovation. Recent developments, together with advances in natural language analysis, seem to be leading us in the right direction.

Soumen Chakrabarti, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Mumbai, and H Guru shyam B E Computer Science student, NSIT, New Delhi