The World Wide Web provides a well standing environment in any kind of organizations for exposing online products and services. However, no one ensures that web products or services which provided by organizations or enterprises, would receive the proper visibility and accessibility by the internet users. The process of Search Engine Optimization examines usability in design, architecture and content that an internet-based system has, for improving its visibility and accessibility in the web. Successful SEO process in an internet-based system, which is set under the paternity of an organization, ensures higher recognition, visibility and accessibility for the web services that the system provides to internet users. The aim of this study characterized with a trinity of axes. In the first axe, an internet-based system and the web services that provides is examined in order to understand its initial situation regarding its visibility and accessibility in the web. In the second axe, the study follows a user-centric approach on how and in what way the examined system could be improved based on its users’ needs and desires. After the encapsulation of needs and desires that the users expressed as regards the usability of the system in design, architecture and content, the third axe takes place. In the third axe, the extracted needs and desires of users are implemented in the under-examined system, in order to understand if its visibility and accessibility has improved in the World Wide Web.For the completion of this trinity of axes, the Soft Systems Methodology approach is adopted. SSM is an action-oriented process of inquiry which deals with a problematic situation from the Finding Out about the situation through the Taking Action to improve it. Following an interpretative research approach, ten semi-structured interviews take place in order to capture all the participants’ perceptions and different worldviews regarding of what are the changes that they need and desire from the examined system. Moreover, in this study, the conduction of three Workshops, constitute a cornerstone for implementing systemically desirable and culturally feasible changes where all participants can live with, in order to improve system’s visibility and accessibility in the internet world. The results indicate that the adoption of participants’ needs and desires, improved the levels of usability, visibility and accessibility of the under examined internet-based system. Overall, this study firstly contributes to expand the knowledge as regards the process of improving the visibility and accessibility of internet-based systems and their web services in the internet world, based on a user-centric approach. Secondly, this study works as a practical toolbox for any kind of organization which intends to improve the visibility and accessibility of its current or potential web services in the World Wide Web.

Närvaron på Internet har aldrig varit större och användningen av sökmotorer motsvarar en stor del av hur människor upptäcker tillgängligt innehåll på Internet. Innehållet som utgörs av hemsidor kategoriseras av sökmotorers automatiserade tjänster. Ett arbete för att förbättra hemsidors möjlighet att kategoriseras görs för att få ökad synlighet genom sökmotorer. Förbättrad synlighet kan också erhållas genom sökmotormarknadsföring, vilket är en strategi för att annonsera via sökmotorer. Genom sökmotorer finns verktyg som assisterar detta ändamål. Företaget som rapporten berör erbjuder tjänster både för sökmotoroptimering och marknadsföring. Problemet med företagets befintliga hantering är att det inte erbjuder tillräckliga möjligheter till analys av statistik för annonseringar på sökmotorerna. Begränsningarna kommer av att statistiken för företagets kunder är separerade på flera olika platser. Konsulter på företaget som ansvarar för vissa kunder får inte dela med sig av statistik för administrerade annonseringar till andra konsulter på företaget. Projektet syftar finna en metod för företagets anställda att göra bättre analyser av sökord och annonseringar. Metoden realiseras i en applikationsplattform, där de anställda erhåller en webbapplikation som kan användas för att finna relevant statistik. Med en kvalitativ metod samlas underlag om företaget och deras förväntningar på systemet in, den insamlade informationen används i den fas som mynnar ut i systemets framställning. Systemet utvecklas iterativt och implementeras sedan i företagets befintliga driftmiljö. Genom arbetet som gjorts i projektet har ett användbart system kunnat realiseras för relevanta användare på företaget. Applikationen erbjuder djupare insikt i vilka faktorer som bidrar till annonseringars framgång. Dock har framgången kring systemets införande inte kunnat mätas i tillräckligt stor utsträckning. En sammanfattning av studien bidrar till rekommendationer till framtida arbete. / Internet usage has never been greater. Search engines provide a gateway to discover content online. The content comes in the form of web pages, which are categorized by the automated services of a search engine. Certain steps can be taken to optimize the way web sites are categorized, all of which are done to improve the visibility on search engines. Another way to increase visibility of a web site can be achieved with search engine marketing. Search engine marketing describes the process of advertising content on search engines. Search engine providers have different tools that may assist the process of advertising. The company that this report concerns provides services in the areas of optimizing and advertising content on search engines. The problem manifests in the company’s current system, which doesn’t provide an acceptable way of analyzing statistics of their search engine marketing efforts. Employees involved with their respective customers may not share information about their strategies and statistics to co-workers. The purpose of the project is to define a method for the company and its employees to achieve a higher level analysis of keyword and advertisement data. The work is realized in a platform that provides employees a way to extract relevant statistics from a web application. A qualitative methodology is defined to collect descriptive information about the company’s processes and their expectations on the system to be developed. The system is developed in a series of iterations and is deployed on a server provided by the company. The efforts have resulted in a useful system that may provide employees with deeper insights as to which factors that might be key for the success of certain advertisement strategies. However, the effects of the system have not been measured to confirm if the method actually improved the company’s search engine marketing efforts. To conclude the study, a set of recommendations has been given for future work.

The goal of this research was to determine if the results of a simple comparison algorithm (SCA) could be improved by adding a hyperspace analogue to language model of memory (HAL) layer to form NCA. The HAL layer provides contextual data that otherwise would be unavailable for consideration. It was found that NCA did improve the results when compared to SCA alone. However, NCA added complexity problems that limit its practicality. The complexity of this algorithm is On3 where n is equal to the number of unique symbols in the data. While there is a relativity reasonable soft upper bound for the number of unique symbols used in a language, the complexity still limits the uses of the NCA combined algorithm. The conclusion from this research is that NCA can improve results. This research also suggested that the quality of results might increase as more data is processed by NCA.

There has been a lot of research and studies done about the positive effects of inbound marketing and previous research clearly states that engaging customers is crucial when developing a successful inbound marketing strategy. However, a gap in connecting inbound marketing to a B2B-perspective is evident. Little information can be found about this specific field of practice when using inbound marketing strategy. Therefore, the aim of this study is to increase the understanding of in what way business to business companies use inbound marketing and the reasons they have for applying this strategy. This study was constructed by a qualitative method with an abductive approach where six companies were interviewed. The interviews were then compared with each other and the collected data from the Frame of Reference in order to gain a deeper understanding of the companies work with inbound marketing. The result of the study gives an insight into how companies can implement inbound marketing in their marketing strategy and the benefits it will lead to if executed correctly. Furthermore, a model has been created to help companies implement inbound marketing and shows which inbound marketing tools that can be used in the different stages of the sales and marketing process.

Rechercher de l’information sur Internet avec un moteur de recherche est une activité complexe qui exige des utilisateurs un grand nombre de traitements. Les travaux de recherche sur les effets du vieillissement en RI ont montré que les utilisateurs âgés ont de moins bonnes performances, passent plus de temps à évaluer les pages de résultats du moteur de recherche et reformulent moins que les jeunes. Ces difficultés seraient dues au déclin des habiletés cognitives fluides comme la flexibilité cognitive, la vitesse de traitement ou le rafraichissement en mémoire de travail. Pour comprendre comment le vieillissement cognitif affecte l’activité de RI, nos travaux ont investigué les stratégies de recherche élaborées par les utilisateurs jeunes et âgés ainsi que les processus cognitifs impliqués. La première partie de ce travail s’est attaché à étudier, au travers de 2 expérimentations, comment les connaissances antérieures peuvent soutenir l’activité de recherche des utilisateurs plus âgés et les aider à répondre aux exigences de la RI selon le niveau de complexité des tâches de recherche. La deuxième partie du travail de recherche a investigué le rôle de deux dispositifs d’aide à la RI : l’un maximisant les effets bénéfiques des connaissances antérieures par un dispositif de pré-activation (étude 3), et l’autre soutenant le maintien du but en mémoire de travail (étude 4). Nos résultats ont montré que les utilisateurs plus âgés ont davantage de difficultés que les jeunes à évaluer les pages de résultats du moteur de recherche et à reformuler leurs requêtes (ils produisent moins de nouveaux mots clés et utilisent plus de mots clés issus des problèmes de recherche). En outre, la phase initiale de l’activité de recherche s’est avérée être plus critique pour les adultes âgés qui produisent des requêtes initiales moins élaborées et passent plus de temps sur la première page de résultats du moteur de recherche. Les connaissances antérieures sur le domaine peuvent toutefois soutenir le niveau d’élaboration des requêtes des utilisateurs plus âgés et améliorer les stratégies de recherche. Par ailleurs, pré-activer les connaissances antérieures peut soutenir l’élaboration de stratégies de recherche descendantes et améliorer le contenu sémantique des requêtes des âgés (particulièrement dans un domaine pour lequel ils ont de faibles connaissances antérieures). Enfin, l’outil d’aide soutenant le maintien du but en mémoire de travail favorise des stratégies de recherche plus flexibles en améliorant la reformulation des requêtes (temps de reformulation plus courts) et en aidant l’exploration en début d’activité. Ces travaux de recherche posent les bases d’un nouveau modèle cognitif de l’activité des RI pour les utilisateurs plus âgés. / Searching for information with a search engine is a complex activity that requires users to perform a series of cognitive processes. Prior works showed that older users can have lower search performance, they spent more time on the search engine result pages and they produce fewer queries than young ones. Older users’ difficulties are mainly caused by the age-related decline of fluid abilities such as cognitive flexibility, processing speed or update in working memory. To understand the effects of aging on information search with a search engine, we studied the search strategies elaborated and the cognitive processes involved by young and older adults. The first part of the present work investigated how prior knowledge about the search topic can support older users’ on-line search behavior and help them deal with the search task complexity (2 experiments). The second part of our work analyzed the role of two information search support tools. One tool aimed at optimizing the benefits of domain knowledge by pre-activating prior knowledge (experiment 3) whereas the other aimed at supporting search goal refreshing in working memory (experiment 4). Results showed that older users had more difficulties evaluating the search engine results pages and reformulating than young ones (i.e. they produced fewer new keywords and used more keywords extracted from the search problem statement in their queries). The initial stage of the search represented a challenge for older users who formulated initial queries that were less elaborate and spent longer dwell time on the first search engine page than young ones. Prior knowledge can improve older users’ reformulation and support more elaborate search strategies. In addition, pre-activating prior knowledge can foster top-down search strategies and improve the semantic content of the queries produced by older users (especially in a domain for which they have low prior knowledge). The support tool helping search goal refreshing in working memory fostered more flexible search strategies and improved reformulation (i.e. reduced the time needed by older users to reformulate). Eventually, our research work led us to elaborate a new cognitive model of information search with a search engine that takes into account the role of aging.

Estudo analisa questões de organização e recuperação de informação em repositórios de jornais on-line. Destaca aspectos do suporte hipermídia, estrutura informativa do documento digital e gênero do conteúdo da informação jornalística on-line; aborda a noção de memória como atributo de ativação e conexão de informações no contexto da Web; descreve a estrutura básica de mecanismos de busca e traça o perfil de jornalistas no âmbito da convergência digital. Para investigar potenciais dificuldades de pesquisa e recuperação de informação, adota-se pesquisa exploratória para inspeção das interfaces similares de mecanismos de busca de jornais selecionados, nacionais e estrangeiros, e questionário on-line para identificar a percepção de usuários especialistas, jornalistas, sobre o uso de mecanismos de busca interna na rotina de trabalho. Como resultado, discute-se sensibilidades dos atributos de pesquisa, padrões técnicos de tratamento da informação, carências do processo de pesquisa e fatores de satisfação para recuperação de informação em ambiente digital. / Study examines issues of organization and information retrieval in online newspapers\' repositories. Highlights aspects of hypermedia, informative structure of the digital document and some genres of the online journalistic information; It addresses the concept of memory as attribute of activation and connection of information in the Web context; It describes the basic structure of search engines and traces the journalists\' profile within the aspect of digital convergence. To investigate potential difficulties of search and information retrieval, exploratory research is adopted to inspect similar interfaces of search engine, in national and foreign selected newspapers; in addition, an online questionnaire is used to identify the perception of expert users about the use internal search engines, based on the work routine of journalists. As a result of these investigations, study shows some sensitivities of search attributes, standards of information processing, research process and satisfaction factors for information retrieval in digital context.

The increasing reliance of people on computers for daily tasks has resulted in a vast number of digital documents. Search engines were once luxury tools for quickly scanning a set of documents but are now quickly becoming the only practical way to navigate through this sea of information. Traditionally, search engine results are based upon a mathematical formula of document relevance to a search phrase. Often, however, what a user deems to be relevant and what a search engine computes as relevant are not the same. User feedback regarding the utility of a search result can be collected in order to refine query results. Additionally, user feedback can be used to identify queries that lack high quality search results. A content author can then further develop existing content or create new content to improve those search results. The most straightforward way of collecting user feedback is to add a graphical user interface component to the search interface that asks the user how much he or she liked the search result. However, if the feedback mechanism requires the user to provide feedback before he or she can progress further with his or her search, the user may become annoyed and provide incorrect feedback values out of spite. Conversely, if the feedback mechanism does not require the user to provide feedback at all then the overall amount of collected feedback will be diminished as many users will not expend the effort required to give feedback. This research focused on the collection of explicit user feedback in both mandatory (a user must give feedback) and voluntary (a user may give feedback) scenarios. The collected data was used to train a set of decision tree classifiers that provided user satisfaction values as a function of implicit user behavior and a set of search terms. The results of our study indicate that a more accurate classifier can be built from explicit data collected in a voluntary scenario. Given a limited search domain, the classification accuracy can be further improved.

Diese Dissertation beschreibt das Design und die Implementierung eines effizienten Suchsystems für linguistische Korpora. Das bestehende und auf einer relationalen Datenbank basierende System ANNIS ist spezialisiert darin, Korpora mit verschiedenen Arten von Annotationen zu unterstützen und nutzt Graphen als einheitliche Repräsentation der verschiedener Annotationen. Für diese Dissertation wurde eine Hauptspeicher-Datenbank, die rein auf Graphen basiert, als Nachfolger für ANNIS entwickelt. Die Korpora werden in Kantenkomponenten partitioniert und für verschiedene Typen von Subgraphen werden unterschiedliche Implementationen zur Darstellung und Suche in diesen Komponenten genutzt. Operationen der Anfragesprache AQL (ANNIS Query Language) werden als Kombination von Erreichbarkeitsanfragen auf diesen verschiedenen Komponenten implementiert und jede Implementierung hat optimierte Funktionen für diese Art von Anfragen. Dieser Ansatz nutzt die verschiedenen Strukturen der unterschiedlichen Annotationsarten aus, ohne die einheitliche Darstellung als Graph zu verlieren. Zusätzliche Optimierungen, wie die parallele Ausführung von Teilen der Anfragen, wurden ebenfalls implementiert und evaluiert. Da AQL eine bestehende Implementierung besitzt und diese für Forscher offen als webbasierter Service zu Verfügung steht, konnten echte AQL-Anfragen aufgenommen werden. Diese dienten als Grundlage für einen Benchmark der neuen Implementierung. Mehr als 4000 Anfragen über 18 Korpora wurden zu einem realistischen Workload zusammengetragen, der sehr unterschiedliche Arten von Korpora und Anfragen mit einem breitem Spektrum von Komplexität enthält. Die neue graphbasierte Implementierung wurde mit der existierenden, die eine relationale Datenbank nutzt, verglichen. Sie führt den Anfragen im Workload im Vergleich ~10 schneller aus und die Experimente zeigen auch, dass die verschiedenen Implementierungen für die Kantenkomponenten daran einen großen Anteil haben. / This dissertation describes the design and implementation of an efficient system for linguistic corpus queries. The existing system ANNIS is based on a relational database and is focused on providing support for corpora with very different kinds of annotations and uses graphs as unified representations of the different annotations. For this dissertation, a main memory and solely graph-based successor of ANNIS has been developed. Corpora are divided into edge components and different implementations for representation and search of these components are used for different types of subgraphs. AQL operations are interpreted as a set of reachability queries on the different components and each component implementation has optimized functions for this type of queries. This approach allows exploiting the different structures of the different kinds of annotations without losing the common representation as a graph. Additional optimizations, like parallel executions of parts of the query, are also implemented and evaluated. Since AQL has an existing implementation and is already provided as a web-based service for researchers, real-life AQL queries have been recorded and thus can be used as a base for benchmarking the new implementation. More than 4000 queries from 18 corpora (from which most are available under an open-access license) have been compiled into a realistic workload that includes very different types of corpora and queries with a wide range of complexity. The new graph-based implementation was compared against the existing one, which uses a relational database. It executes the workload ~10 faster than the baseline and experiments show that the different graph storage implementations had a major effect in this improvement.

This study sets out to explore and test the application of narrative and personification to the interface design and user experience of a search engine. The motivational and collaborative aspects of a search agent narrative will be examined and tested as a technique for increasing the volume and quality of data submitted to an open-content search engine by its users.

<p>Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate future marketing channels from the perspective of professional marketers.</p><p>Material/Method: The study is based upon interviews with six professional marketers.</p><p>Main results: Traditional marketing is not being put aside but needs to be combined with new methods. There are several new and exciting ways to gain attention from the audience, all depending on the purpose of the campaign. Mobile technology is considered upcoming and target group defining is a key issue.</p>