A survey on information re‐finding techniques

Abstract

Purpose

Observing that people re‐access what they have seen or used in the past is very common in real lives. The purpose of this paper is to review the subject of information re‐finding comprehensively, and introduce to readers the underlying techniques and mechanisms used in information re‐finding.

Design/methodology/approach

After analyzing users' information re‐finding behaviors and their requirements, the paper studies the natural way of re‐finding in human memory, and reviews state‐of‐the‐art techniques and tools developed in the fields of web and personal information management for information re‐finding.

Findings

Four main re‐finding support techniques on the Web are: re‐finding tools in Web browsers; history service; re‐finding search engine; and voice‐based re‐finding. Three main re‐finding approaches are used in PIM: browse‐based approaches; content‐based search; and context‐based search.

Practical implications

Following the recalling mechanisms in human memory, the method of recall‐by‐context in both fields of web usage and personal information management can make users feel easy to re‐find information.

Originality/value

The paper gives a comprehensive overview of information re‐finding techniques.

Citation

Deng, T. and Feng, L. (2011), "A survey on information re‐finding techniques", International Journal of Web Information Systems, Vol. 7 No. 4, pp. 313-332. https://doi.org/10.1108/17440081111187538