| Although Web search has become the primary means by which people find and access information on the Web, the interfaces used by the top Web search engines have changed very little since the early days of the Web. Little support is provided for the tasks of crafting and refining queries, and subsequently exploring search results sets. The goal of this research is to explore methods by which interactive visualization can be used to support Web searchers. A novel paradigm is presented that highlights the use of subject knowledge to support interactive query refinement and interactive search results exploration. Four prototype systems are presented that represent an exploration of the design space. VisiQ provides a visual representation of a query, supporting interactive query refinement. HotMap provides a visual representation query term frequencies in the top search results, supporting interactive search results exploration. Concept Highlighter uses concept information as a means for exploring the search results. WordBars generates a term frequency histogram, supporting both interactive query refinement and interactive search results exploration. In general, the evaluations conducted on these systems produced very positive results. This research highlights the benefits of interactive visualization for Web information retrieval; the prototype systems represent instances of next-generation Web search systems that allow the user to take a more active involvement in the Web search process. |
