An automated internet resource discovery system

The last several years have witnessed the introduction of a number of resource discovery systems to the Internet. Archie, Gopher, and the World-Wide Web are common examples which have achieved widespread popularity. These systems are typically categorized as either searchers, or browsers, depending upon their approach to the information discovery problem.Both methodologies have their respective strengths and weaknesses. However, neither approach appears to be fully capable of dealing with the increased demands of a rapidly expanding global network and burgeoning volume of data. Future Internet growth will only exacerbate this problem. A resource discovery system better suited to cope with the observed trends in Internet growth would ideally combine the most effective elements of both types of discovery systems.This paper describes one approach to such a hybrid resource discovery system. We focus on addressing specific shortcomings of current discovery paradigms and on the issues involved in locating and presenting high-quality information.