The World Wide Web can be considered a huge library that in consequence needs a capable librarian responsible for the classification and retrieval of documents as well as the mediation between library resources and users. Based on this idea, the concept of the "Librarian of the Web" is introduced which comprises novel, librarian-inspired methods and technical solutions to decentrally search for text documents in the web using peer-to-peer technology. The concept's implementation in the form of an interactive peer-to-peer client, called "WebEngine", is elaborated on in detail. This software extends and interconnects common web servers creating a fully integrated, decentralised and self-organising web search system on top of the existing web structure. Thus, the web is turned into its own powerful search engine without the need for any central authority. This book is intended for researchers and practitioners having a solid background in the fields of Information Retrieval and Web Mining.

This book initiates a transformation of the Web into a self-managing, autonomous information system to challenge today's all-embracing role of big search engines as centralized information managers. In the last decades, the World Wide Web became the biggest source for all kinds of information needed. After a short review of the state of the art, a Web-based system is presented for the first time, which employs all its instances equally to provide, consume, and process information uniformly and consistently. In order to build such an efficient, decentralized, and fully integrated information space with all its needed functionalities, a set of diverse algorithms is introduced. These novel mechanisms for load balancing, routing, clustering, document classification, but also time-dependent information management pertain to almost all system levels. Finally, three different approaches to decentralized Web search are discussed that represent the backbone of the new autonomous Web.

The World Wide Web can be considered a huge library that in consequence needs a capable librarian responsible for the classification and retrieval of documents as well as the mediation between library resources and users. Based on this idea, the concept of the "Librarian of the Web" is introduced which comprises novel, librarian-inspired methods and technical solutions to decentrally search for text documents in the web using peer-to-peer technology. The concept's implementation in the form of an interactive peer-to-peer client, called "WebEngine", is elaborated on in detail. This software extends and interconnects common web servers creating a fully integrated, decentralised and self-organising web search system on top of the existing web structure. Thus, the web is turned into its own powerful search engine without the need for any central authority. This book is intended for researchers and practitioners having a solid background in the fields of Information Retrieval and Web Mining.

This book initiates a transformation of the Web into a self-managing, autonomous information system to challenge today's all-embracing role of big search engines as centralized information managers. In the last decades, the World Wide Web became the biggest source for all kinds of information needed. After a short review of the state of the art, a Web-based system is presented for the first time, which employs all its instances equally to provide, consume, and process information uniformly and consistently. In order to build such an efficient, decentralized, and fully integrated information space with all its needed functionalities, a set of diverse algorithms is introduced. These novel mechanisms for load balancing, routing, clustering, document classification, but also time-dependent information management pertain to almost all system levels. Finally, three different approaches to decentralized Web search are discussed that represent the backbone of the new autonomous Web.

Fur Leser, die bereits die Grundlagen der Wissensverarbeitung und Computernetzwerke beherrschen, gibt das Buch einen UEberblick uber innovative Verfahren, die die automatisierte Suche, Recherche, Klassifikation und Verwaltung von Texten im Kontext dezentraler Systeme und vor allem im WWW erlauben. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit wird dabei auf eine personalisierte Verarbeitung gerichtet, die auch zeitliche Aspekte, wie z. B. das digitale Vergessen, einbeziehen. An vielen Stellen werden auf interessante und neuartige Art und Weise Analogien aus anderen Wissensgebieten, so z. B. zur Verarbeitung von Informationen und zum Lernen im menschlichen Gehirn sowie der Natur schlechthin genutzt.