Searching, Browsing, and Metasearching with SenseMaker
Seek And Ye Shall Find
By Michelle Q. Wang Baldonado
In the early days of the Web, the difference between search engines and directories was clear. Search engines like WebCrawler enabled users to seek by "searching." Users simply entered a query to find pointers to pages. The extra information included with these pointers (for example, title, last modified date, and summary) helped users decide whether or not to follow these links. In contrast, directories like Yahoo enabled users to seek by "browsing." Users navigated through a hierarchy of topic-based areas to find categories of interest. From there, they could find pointers to pages within those categories.
This article describes how the dividing line between searching and browsing is beginning to blur, and examines the role of metasearchers like MetaCrawler that "outsource" queries to existing search services and integrate the results for the user. We'll see how two commercial services, Infoseek and WebCompass, integrate searching, browsing, and metasearching. I'll also take you behind the scenes of SenseMaker, a prototype interface developed as part of the Stanford University Digital Libraries Project. SenseMaker gives the user control over a combination of searching and browsing. Its metasearches use the Stanford InfoBus, which models a wide array of services as CORBA-based proxies.
Bridging the Gaps
Infoseek is a good example of a service that combines searching and browsing.
