Opportunistic search with semantic fisheye views

Search goals are often too complex or poorly defined to be solved with a single query in a Web-based information environment. In this paper we describe how we use semantic fisheye views (SFEVs) to effectively support opportunistic search and browsing strategies in an annotated image collection. We have developed a SFEV prototype enabling rapid, interactive exploration using both keyword similarity and semantic relationships derived using WordNet. SFEVs visually emphasize and increase the detail of information related to the focus and de-emphasize or filter less important information. The contribution of the SFEV approach is the flexible definition of context as a combination of interest metrics, which can be reconfigured and combined to support a wide range of visualizations and information needs