A Search Interface for my Questions
The Selection Process

Displaying Sites
The Spider, Selection on Keywords, Limiters on Words, Limiters on Sites, Displaying Sites.
  With all words in their right group, the required word-limiters in their place, and the other limiters set-up, we can (finally) start showing sites and pages.

The display of sites is very abstract: it shows small circles representing sites, `floating' in the direction of the center of one large circle which represents the `universe'. Five dimensions are used to assess the information about a site. These dimensions are displayed on the abstract display in such a way as to allow a site is human pattern-recognition to make the final choice whether to visit a site or not. For example, the closer a circle is to the center, the better the site fits the request.

  Using the slider, the scale of the diagram can be set: sites are shown to float away from the center or closing in. When the user moves the mouse-pointer on a site's circle, the description of the site (as stored in the HTML) is shown in a separate message window. A click will bring the user to the part of the site where most hits where found.

Various details about the search results are shown by the circle which represents the site:

  • The distance to the center of the picture shows the chance that the site contains the answer on your question. The closer to the center, the higher the chance.
  • The size of the circle shows the size of the site. This uses non-linear scaling so that very small sites shall be visible and very large sites shall not cover the whole screen.
  • The amount of backdrop of the circle is an indication about the quality of the site.
  • The colors filling parts of the circle indicate how many hits are found for each word-group. Each group has its own color: green for primary words, blue for related words, and red for forbidden words. By looking at the relative amount of colors in the circle, you can estimate how the site got its rating: primarily by keywords, or by the related words.
  • The angle of the color-bows is used to show the percentage of pages hit by the keywords. A narrow pie-piece, colorful filled from the center to the border of the circle means highly concentrated hits. A wide bow, along the outside of the circle means a few hits spread over many pages. The bows/pie-parts are directed to the center of the display, as if the center glows them.
A large variety of information concentrated in one display. The eye will recognize trends after a few queries.

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