Structuring and visualizing the WWW by generalized similarity analysis

This paper describes a generic approach to structuring and visualizing a hypertext-based information space on the WWW. This approach, called Generalized Similarity Analysis (GSA), provides a unifying framework for extracting structural patterns from a range of proximity data concerning three fundamental relationships in hypertext, namely, hypertext linkage, content similarity and browsing patterns. GSA emphasizes the integral role of users' interests in dynamically structuring the underlying information space. Pathfinder networks are used as a natural vehicle for structuring and visualizing the rich structure of an information space by highlighting salient relationships in proximity data. In this paper, we use the GSA framework in the study of hypertext documents automatically retrieved over the Internet, including a number of departmental WWW sites and conference proceedings on the WWW. We show that GSA has several distinct features for structuring and visualizing hypertext information spaces. GSA provides some generic tools for developing adaptive user interfaces to hypertext systems. Link structures derived by GSA can be used together with dynamic linking mechanisms to produce a number of hypertext versions of a common information space.