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"The World Wide Web makes more information available than ever before. This does
not necessarily mean, however, that users are always able to obtain the information they
want. In fact, because so much information is available, users sometimes have difficulty
obtaining the information they require. These problems are of two main types:

1. Users do not know where to find the desired information (Location unknown/target
defined).
2. Users do not know what specific information is desired (Target ill-defined).

Users usually do not know their targets when starting searches. As they search, their targets
gradually become clear. Therefore, they should carry out two tasks: to specify the target and
to select the information that satisfies the target." (Saito, 155)

The usual experience regarding searching on the Web is that the user typically enters
the search process only with an idea of the desired information. Often, the user is simply
looking for information on a general topic such as "cars" or "homes." As the user searches the
Web, the criteria gets more specific and refined until it becomes phrases such as "Cars built
in the USA between 1951 – 1955" or "Homes up for sale in Rahway, New Jersey in 1999."
Today, finding desired information on the Web is not a one-search process. It involves
multiple searches with various criteria options in order to find the desired information. Since
there is just so much information available on the Internet, it would be virtually impossible to
find all relevant information based on the first set of criteria. Efficient searching on the web
involves having to refine one’s criteria and search multiple times using the same search
engines or multiple search engines. Just as searching for information in a library is multiple
search process, so is searching on the Web. With so much information available, it is simply
not possible to find everything with only one search.

Video Searching

Searching through video and/or still images presents an interesting challenge to search engine
developers. The way most search engines operate today is by appending text descriptions to
the video clips and/or images, so that the searches are based on the text. This enables one
search on the text description of "Mona Lisa" and get back the picture, but does not enable
one to search on all videos dealing with soldier marching techniques. Video and photo
searching is something that is still being developed and explored. For example, being able to
search for an image of the Statue of Liberty would be very challenging for developers, as this
would require a query by image content. Basically, this means that the search engine or tool
would have to be sophisticated enough to recognize an image of the Lady Liberty and
differentiate it from all other possible images. Instead, one of the approaches for searching

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