A Monte-Carlo simulation application for automatic new topic identification of search engine transaction logs


ÖZMUTLU S., ÖZMUTLU H. C., Buyuk B.

SIMULATION MODELLING PRACTICE AND THEORY, vol.16, no.5, pp.519-538, 2008 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

Abstract

One of the most important dimensions of Web user information seeking behavior and search engine research is content-based behavior, and limited research has focused on content-based behavior of search engine users. The purpose of this study is to perform automatic new topic identification in search engine transaction logs using Monte-Carlo simulation. Sample data logs from FAST and Excite are used in the study. Findings show that Monte-Carlo simulation for new topic identification yields satisfactory results in terms of identifying topic continuations; however, the performance measures regarding topic shifts should be improved. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.