We live in an information age that requires us, more than ever, to represent, access, and use information. Over the last several decades, we have developed a modern science and technology for information retrieval, relentlessly pursuing the vision of a "memex" that Vannevar Bush proposed in his seminal article, "As We May Think." Faceted search plays a key role in this program. Faceted search addresses weaknesses of conventional search approaches and has emerged as a foundation for interactive information retrieval. User studies demonstrate that faceted search provides more effective information-seeking support to users than best-first search. Indeed, faceted search has become increasingly prevalent in online information access systems, particularly for e-commerce and site search. In this lecture, we explore the history, theory, and practice of faceted search. Although we cannot hope to be exhaustive, our aim is to provide sufficient depth and breadth to offer a useful resource to both researchers and practitioners. Because faceted search is an area of interest to computer scientists, information scientists, interface designers, and usability researchers, we do not assume that the reader is a specialist in any of these fields. Rather, we offer a self-contained treatment of the topic, with an extensive bibliography for those who would like to pursue particular aspects in more depth. Table of Contents: I. Key Concepts / Introduction: What Are Facets? / Information Retrieval / Faceted Information Retrieval / II. Research and Practice / Academic Research / Commercial Applications / III. Practical Concerns / Back-End Concerns / Front-End Concerns / Conclusion / Glossary
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Index Terms
- Faceted Search
Recommendations
A survey of faceted search
Faceted Search is an exploratory search mechanism, which provides an iterative way to refine search results by a faceted taxonomy. With the benefit of search results diversification, no need for a priori knowledge, and never leading to zero result, it ...
Extending Faceted Search to the Open-Domain Web
Faceted search enables users to navigate a multi-dimensional information space by combining keyword search with drill-down options in each facets. For example, when searching "computer monitor" in an e-commerce site, users can select brands and monitor ...
Extending Faceted Search to the General Web
CIKM '14: Proceedings of the 23rd ACM International Conference on Conference on Information and Knowledge ManagementFaceted search helps users by offering drill-down options as a complement to the keyword input box, and it has been used successfully for many vertical applications, including e-commerce and digital libraries. However, this idea is not well explored for ...