Connecting Keywords Through Pointer Paths over the Web

We propose a framework for discovering connections from a source keyword to a target keyword through the Web pages containing them. We are interested in connections provided by pointer paths leading from a source page to a target page (a source page being a page containing the source keyword, and a target page being a page containing the target keyword). Each such path provides an “explanation” of the connection, and the set of all such paths is considered as the “semantics” of the connection. When one talks about federation in the context of the Web, one usually means connecting a number of Web resources to cooperate towards a common goal. A complementary though less known aspect is that of discovering federations of Web resources by interpreting the pointer paths connecting them. The work presented in this paper is a step in that direction, introducing concepts and tools for discovering federations over the Web.