Abstract

We revisit document clustering in the context of the Web. Specifically, we investigate on-line ephemeral clustering, whereby the input document set is generated dynamically, typically by search results, and the output clustering hierarchy has a short life span, and is used for interactive browsing purposes. Ephemeral clustering for interactive use introduces several new challenges. It requires an efficient algorithm, since clustering is performed on-line. It also requires high precision, because users who are not domain experts are less tolerant to errors, and because the resulting hierarchy is fully automatically generated, as opposed to off-line clustering in which the hierarchy is often manually modified. Finally, interactive clustering requires a presentation layer that enables users to effectively browse the hierarchy, including visualization techniques and automatic annotations of the hierarchy. We present new concepts, techniques and algorithms that tailor clustering to...

Citations