WebLog WebLog Internet is one of the fastest growing repositories of vast amounts of information. While navigation and browsing are greatly useful in seeking out specific information relevant to a user's needs, their power is often limited by the fact that the user doesn't necessarily know where to look! Worldwide, various search engines have been developed, which can access information in the WWW in an efficient manner, typically through the use of catalog databases implementing efficient search mechanisms. However, the amount and kind of partial knowledge that search engine based querying can profitably use is quite limited. To make effective use of the way information is structured in WWW documents, a query system is needed that can exploit both content and structure.
Often the way an answer to a query is presented can enhance its readability and usefulness. This is especially true in the context of web querying. Consider e.g., compiling links to the CFPs of major Database Conferences for the next 6 months, together with their important dates, sorted by deadlines and structured according to areas (e.g., theory on the left and systems on the right). This is the aspect of rendering the answer, and is closely related to restructuring as in the context of databases and other semi-structured information systems.
The Concordia Database Research Group is involved in a project whose primary aim is to design and implement a declarative language supporting the above capabilities. WebLog, a language inspired by our SchemaLog experience, is a language developed primarily for this purpose. WebLog has been implemented recently. The current implementation supports many of the features above. For more info. on implementation and the system, please check around the middle of June.
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Balazs Kegl
Pawel Rodziewicz