ClickIR: Text Retrieval using a Dynamic Hypertext Interface

In this report we describe our model of dynamic hypertext and how the ClickIR system uses this model to assist users in interactive search. The system was used in both the ad hoc task and the interactive track. In the context of the ad hoc task we were interested in the effects relevance feedback would have on our system. Comparison of ClickIR performance with and without relevance feedback showed that relevance feedback was critical in boosting the performance of the system from below median performance to the upper rank of TREC-7 systems. In the interactive track we compared the ClickIR (experimental) system where the tasks of querying and browsing were integrated, with a system which closely approximated a Web search engine, where the task of querying is separated from the task of browsing a list of hits. A trade-off between recall and precision was observed, with ClickIR leading to significantly greater recall, but at the expense of significantly lower precision and longer time taken to perform the task.