Preface
 
This diploma thesis concludes a period of study of 4 ½ years, fulfilling the requirements for the Master of Science/sivilingeniør title, at the Department of Computer and Information Science, IDI, at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU. The work behind the thesis has taken place in the period  August 1997 – February 1998, prolonged from the original 4-month period because of the author’s position as a teaching assistant during the period.

The first part of the report is a literature study of the fields of search engine technology, information retrieval and intelligent agents. The second part is a framework for a new kind of search tool for organizing the information on the World Wide Web into a contextually searchable hierarchy. The two parts are not strictly kept apart from each other, but are woven together throughout the report.

Combining agent technology and search engine technology is a new field with few shoulders to stand on.  The candidate wishes to thank his supervisors at the institute, Babak Amin Farshchian and Terje  Brasethvik, for many and helpful comments on the work throughout the work period. Professor Ingeborg Sølvberg at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and assistant professor Sandy Goldstein Hirsh at the School of Information Resources and Library Science at the University of Arizona, have been of great help in explaining the mysteries of the library world. Anders Ardö, Chief Coordinator of the Development laboratory at the Technical Knowledge Center and Library of Denmark (DTV) has helped with comments and information about Web robots and the occurrence of meta information on existing Web pages.

Finally, gratitude for insightful and patient comments in general is expressed towards Thomas Erickson,  designer and researcher at IBM's T.J. Watson Laboratories, and towards head supervisor for the diploma theses in the information systems group, professor Arne Sølvberg.
 
 

Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, Trondheim, February 9, 1998
 

Go to: Front page - Index - Ch. 1 - Ch. 2 - Ch. 3 - Ch. 4 - Ch. 5 - Ch. 6 - Ch. 7 - Ch. 8 - Ch. 9 - Glossary - References
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E-mail the author, Bjørn Christian Tørrissen:  bct@pvv.org