Basic requirements to keep in mind for an ideal agent-based web information retrieval system in ubiquitous environments

This paper describes UWIRS (acronym of Ubiquitous Web Information Retrieval Solution), an agent-based Web Information Retrieval (WIR) solution designed taking into account the unique features of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the limitations of existing WIR solutions, to explain basic functional requirements to keep in mind for an ideal WIR system in ubiquitous environments. In UWIRS, agents cooperate in order to retrieve personalized information, considering user needs, goals, preferences and contextual features. UWIRS's agents are responsible for: interpreting user input and adding adaptation information by means of a query enrichment process; identifying and selecting the appropriate data sources taking into consideration the Profile Set (composed of User, Device and Information-Provider Profiles); executing query routing and the information retrieval process; integrating and filtering the retrieved results; and lastly, coherent presentation of quality and relevant ubiquitous information (anytime, anywhere and anyhow) that satisfies the user's particular information needs and constraints associated to his/her access device. Overall, the main challenge resides on: location, retrieval, integration and presentation of information from the WWW, quickly and accurately, to satisfy a user's singular information needs.