VisSearch: A collaborative Web searching environment

Abstract

VisSearch is a collaborative Web searching environment intended for sharing Web search results among people with similar interests, such as college students taking the same course. It facilitates students’ Web searches by visualizing various Web searching processes. It also collects the visualized Web search results and applies an association rule data mining algorithm to find meaningful patterns in the Web search queries and the resulting useful Web resources. The mined patterns are then used as recommendations in guiding other students as they search the Web on the same or similar topics. This paper describes the design and implementation of the VisSearch environment and its evaluation. The experimental results showed that students who used the VisSearch environment were able to better search the Web than students who used the conventional Web search engines and Web browsers by utilizing the visualized Web searching processes and the recommended information.