WebSSQL-a query language for multimedia Web documents

We describe an SQL-like query language-WebSSQL-for retrieving desired Web pages. WebSSQL has several unique features. First, WebSSQL assumes that each Web page is a multimedia document consisting of structured data, text data and possibly image data. Second, WebSSQL treats each page as a node in a directed graph composed of many Web pages and links among them. Third, WebSSQL is similarity-based meaning that the retrieved Web pages will be ranked based on their closeness to a given query. The traditional SQL does not support similarity-based retrieval and ranking. With WebSSQL, users can specify their search needs more precisely, leading to more accurate retrieval of useful information.