An architecture and category knowledge for intelligent information retrieval agents
Information overload has become a serious problem for users of the World Wide Web. In this paper, we propose to use intelligent information retrieval (IIR) agents as a solution to this problem. We identify desirable features of an IIR agent, including intelligent search, navigation guide, auto-notification, personal information management, dynamic personalized Web pages, and tools for page reading-aide. We propose a modularized agent architecture, describe the responsibility of each component and discuss how to combine these components to perform various tasks. We point out that group knowledge, acquired from preferences of other users in the same group, may be useful. The agent's knowledge on user preference is primarily represented by category profiles. Several applications of category profiles are also investigated.
category information retrieval agent navigation personalization notification