Faceted search, social networking and interactive semantics

Abstract

IntroductionThe most popular and basic techniques for accessing the Web are browse and search. Faceted search, also called faceted navigation or faceted browse, is a third technique that enables users to access Web pages from different facets. A faceted search system can display different facets of the same set of Web pages at different steps in a search. Faceted search is also a way to deal with the size of Web contents since it can locate the sought for content through multi-step refinements on classifications from multiple facets [2,5,9]. Faceted search has been adopted in many applications such as e-learning, e-business, online library, and general search engines. However, research on its fundamental theory is neglected. Many important problems are still open, such as the underlying theory for organizing resources from multiple dimensions, the generation of appropriate interactive query process, and adaptive interfaces. Research on the fundamental model and associated theory is critical for the development of faceted search.Classification and link are the most basic intelligent mechanisms for managing objects and structuring space. Making use of classification and link is the natural way to manage Web resources. Multi-dimensional classifications, called Resource Space Model, have been used to manage various resources [13][14][15][16]. It is the theory, model and method that can organize Web resources for faceted navigation.Classifications form and evolve with the evolution of society. Humans use words to indicate classifications to realize effective interaction [12]. Manually classifying Web resources is a straightforward approach to organize resources for faceted navigation. To generate facets automatically is the key to efficient faceted navigation. In Web navigation applications, to extract the appropriate words that indicate classifications is the key to generating facets for automatically faceted Web navigation.