Deep-web search engine ranking algorithms

Abstract

The deep web refers to content that is hidden behind HTML forms. The deep web contains a large collection of data that are unreachable by link-based search engines. A study conducted at University of California, Berkeley estimated that the deep web consists of around 91,000 terabytes of data, whereas the surface web is only about 167 terabytes. To access this content, one must submit valid input values to the HTML form. Several researchers have studied methods for crawling deep web content. One of the most promising methods uses unique wrappers for HTML forms. User inputs are first filtered through the wrappers before being submitted to the forms. However, this method requires a new algorithm for ranking search results generated by the wrappers. In this paper, I explore methods for ranking search results returned from a wrapped-based deep web search engine.