Determining Text Databases to Search in the Internet

许多可搜索的文本信息源可在因特网上获得。用户所需的文档通常存储在多个异构的源中，使得用户难以在因特网中找到所需的文档。需要能够调用多个搜索引擎的自动搜索代理（元搜索引擎），以便用户可以使用单个查询从多个源找到所需的文档。该合作项目旨在开发下一代元数据引擎所需的技术。高度可扩展的方法，可以准确地估计有用的信息源相对于每个用户查询的开发。这些方法将使元搜索引擎能够为每个查询仅搜索少量足够有用的信息源，避免浪费资源来搜索无用的源。文件之间的联系将用于改进相关文件的检索。概念层次结构用于消除术语含义的歧义。技术，同时保证检索的所有潜在有用的文件从本地搜索引擎，也尽量减少检索无用的文件进行调查。还寻求将来自多个源的结果合并到单个排名列表中的问题的良好解决方案。开发的技术将显着提高现有的效率和有效性。将在主要的大学搜索引擎之上安装一个元搜索引擎，并使其可以通过电子方式访问。

Many searchable text information sources are available in the Internet. The desired documents of a user are often stored in multiple heterogeneous sources, making it difficult for a user to find desired documents in the Internet. Automatic search brokers (metasearch engines) that can invoke multiple search engines are needed so that a user can find desired documents from multiple sources using a single query. This collaborative project is to develop techniques needed for the next generation metasearch engines. Highly scalable methods that can accurately estimate the usefulness of an information source with respect to each user query are to be developed. These methods would enable the metasearch engine to search only a small number of sufficiently useful information sources for each query, avoiding wasting resources for searching useless sources. Linkages among documents are to be used to improve the retrieval of relevant documents. A concept hierarchy is to be used to disambiguate the meanings of terms. Techniques that while guaranteeing the retrieval of all potentially useful documents from a local search engine, also minimize the retrieval of useless documents are to be investigated. Good solutions to the problem of merging results from multiple sources into a single ranked list are also sought. Developed techniques will be shown to significantly improve existing ones in both efficiency and effectiveness. A metasearch engine incorporating developed techniques on top of major university search engines will be implemented and made publically accessible.