Abstract:

Future search tools will have to work with the tremendous range of online information available to users, including the entire Web but also corporate sources such as subscription services or databases and personal sources such as calendars or email archives. The standard centrally-indexed model of search will not work in these situations, which argues for a metasearch model; however the great diversity of data sources raises many challenges.
We examine the performance of established techniques for source characterisation and source selection in the personal metasearch scenario, and outline problems. We also propose an evaluation model appropriate for tools that must work with dynamic and personal corpora.

BIO: After graduating from Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, Paul worked there for a time before joining CSIRO in Australia. He is now a PhD student at the Australian National University, working with David Hawking.