TY - JOUR
T1 - On ranking techniques for desktop search
AU - Cohen, Sara
AU - Domshlak, Carmel
AU - Zwerdling, Naama
PY - 2008/3/1
Y1 - 2008/3/1
N2 - Users tend to store huge amounts of files, of various formats, on their personal computers. As a result, finding a specific, desired file within the file system is a challenging task. This article addresses the desktop search problem by considering various techniques for ranking results of a search query over the file system. First, basic ranking techniques, which are based on various file features (e.g., file name, access date, file size, etc.), are considered and their effectiveness is empirically analyzed. Next, two learning-based ranking schemes are presented, and are shown to be significantly more effective than the basic ranking methods. Finally, a novel ranking technique, based on query selectiveness, is considered for use during the cold-start period of the system. This method is also shown to be empirically effective, even though it does not involve any learning.
AB - Users tend to store huge amounts of files, of various formats, on their personal computers. As a result, finding a specific, desired file within the file system is a challenging task. This article addresses the desktop search problem by considering various techniques for ranking results of a search query over the file system. First, basic ranking techniques, which are based on various file features (e.g., file name, access date, file size, etc.), are considered and their effectiveness is empirically analyzed. Next, two learning-based ranking schemes are presented, and are shown to be significantly more effective than the basic ranking methods. Finally, a novel ranking technique, based on query selectiveness, is considered for use during the cold-start period of the system. This method is also shown to be empirically effective, even though it does not involve any learning.
KW - Desktop search
KW - Personal information management
KW - Ranking
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=42049093964&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/1344411.1344417
DO - 10.1145/1344411.1344417
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AN - SCOPUS:42049093964
SN - 1046-8188
VL - 26
JO - ACM Transactions on Information Systems
JF - ACM Transactions on Information Systems
IS - 2
M1 - 11
ER -