Information navigation by clustering and summarizing query results

We have explored and evaluated a novel approach to information seeking grounded in the idea of summarizing query results through automated document clustering. The user starts with a natural language description of the needed information and navigates the information space through the interaction of the system. We implemented a prototype allowing searches of a significant portion of the entire World Wide Web. In a laboratory experiment, subjects searched the WWW for answers to a given set of questions. Our results indicate that our prototype improved search peformance, presumably through better understanding of query results. In addition, we analyzed interaction patterns and the effects of such parameters as subject skills and task peculiarities.