Introduction to Subject Search Spider™

SSSpider™ is your personal second-generation Intelligent World Wide Web (WWW) agent that automates the retrieval and selection of useful information available from the Internet. SSSpider selects data based on questions entered in any language of your choice. SSSpider can operate in the background and when the search is complete, creates a report of its findings which can be viewed using either a default or an internal built-in browser.

Assume, you are planning a vacation with your family and you are intending to visit some countries in Europe, for example Italy and Spain. If you want to see the sites and get out and about, you'll probably need to rent a car to be able to plan your own itinerary. But, wait a minute, how do I rent a car in these countries? Like most people, you have a world of other things to do, so ringing around isn't really what you have time for. But, having an idea as to what is available would be really useful. Well, your problem is solved, get SSSpider to ask the question directly to the Internet and see what it finds; you can even cut the grass while SSSpider sweeps the Internet on your behalf!

When you run SSSpider for the first time, in the right bottom corner of the main SSSpider window a pane entitled "Noname.sss" is displayed; this is a Query Folder. Query folders contain queries or questions you ask SSSpider. Several sample queries have been already included into the Noname Query folder for your convenience: this way you can quickly become familiar with SSSpider and test out its search capabilities. Using Query Folders, you may group your queries by topics, such as Travel, Politics or Sports. You can enter new queries into the Query folder and if required, you can also create your own custom Query folders for special interest subjects. (See also: SSSpider Query Folders) Search results are stored in these folders allowing you to build up a portfolio of search reports grouped by your favorite topics. In our Query folder we have included several example queries:

To enter a similar query for Spain, point with the mouse to the Search Phrase box and type: "Rental Car in Spain". No need to do any more than that, all the other defaults are automatically entered by SSSpider using a set of standard preferences that have been optimized for this type of queries.

To run the query "Rental car in Spain", all you have to do is simply to click the New Search icon using the left mouse button, then holding the button, drag the icon and drop it on a desired search set, for example, "Search in Entire Web". Having done this, you may sit back and relax (or, cut the grass). If you are not yet connected to the Internet, you will be prompted with the Dial-Up Networking "Connect to..." dialog, where you make the connection to your on-line Internet provider. To run the query "Rental car in Italy", do exactly the same: drag and drop the corresponding query icon onto the set "Search in Entire Web".

Once connected, SSSpider will start searching for the number of documents requested. As soon as the first query has been processed within the time limit set in preferences (or perhaps sooner), you'll hear a warning beep. This beep means that SSSpider has completed the first query, will now load your default browser and present you a report of its findings. While you are browsing the report for search query number 1, SSSpider is still working in the background gathering information for query number 2. Once each query gets processed, the corresponding report will be automatically loaded into your browser.

SSSpider reports summarize the number of locations visited, the time taken and the number of quotations or extracts selected from the sites visited during the search. Quotations are listed in the report and sorted by their relevancy, which reflects how closely each quotation can be matched to your search phrase.

Within a few minutes SSSpider has provided you with two reports containing information on Rental car in Italy and Rental car in Spain. Both reports are stored in a folder and if you want to have a look at the same query at a later date, open the Query folder "Sample", find your search phrase and double-click it using the left mouse button. Once you do this, SSSpider will bring the corresponding report in front of your eyes:

See also: Submitting Queries and Viewing Results

2. What can SSSpider do for me?

• The intelligent powerful text search engine developed by Kryloff Technologies quickly makes sense of what you are looking for.
• SSSpider saves you time, now you do not have to manually sift through large amounts of irrelevant information: this work is done by SSSpider automatically. Why visit one Web site when Spider can visit up to 20 simultaneously.
• SSSpider always provides you with up-to-date information: not only does it give you a Web site address but also it retrieves data from the original documents stored at that location.
• Wherever you are and using any European language, SSSpider does the work while you get on with the business of the day (see Multi-Language Support for more information). SSSpider extracts paragraphs containing your Search Phrase from the documents located, even if some words in the Search Phrase do not match exactly or are not present.
• SSSpider presents the results of its search in a simple but structured report, estimating each quotation extracted from a document, with relevancy scores sorted "best matches first".
• You can create personal libraries to store the results of your search. Disk space is negligible as SSSpider stores only essential information not entire documents. Any time you want to open the entire document for any of the quotations contained in the report, just follow the links that are highlighted at the beginning of each quotation. SSSpider will take you there automatically.
• SSSpider can be configured and customized to suit your language and even for more thorough searches. These and many other options enable you to tailor SSSpider to match your exact needs. Flexibility and ease of use are the hallmarks of this product.
• What about program updates to include for new search sites, or changes to existing search engines? Don't concern yourself: automated reminders you'll receive from SSSpider plus a powerful Search Engine Wizard, which allows you to add new search engines with several clicks of the mouse button are another productivity features that we have included. This will keep SSSpider on track, adding new search sites, catering for changes to existing search engines, upgrading the program as new features are implemented. All this will take place seamlessly and easily. Keeping up-to-date with the quickly changing face of the World Wide Web has been built into the design of SSSpider right from the beginning.

SSSpider performs full-text search in several steps:

Step 1. When you have entered one or a number of Search Phrases in the Query screen, launch your queries by dragging the corresponding query icons and then dropping them onto a desired Search Set. SSSpider starts processing your queries and sends a simultaneous request to up to 20 search engines for them to find matches to query number one.

Step 2. Once the search engines have provided a list of locations that could contain information that match or are related to your Search Phrase, SSSpider then begins to contact the sites. SSSpider uses the existing engines (such as Alta Vista, Google, Yahoo, etc.) to do the first level navigation within the Web and then having received this list, "drills down" to actually look into each site to see what more it can find. Since not all engines reflect the most recent changes to these sites, it’s not possible for the search engines to provide you with matched quotations extracted from the original documents, all you get is their titles and a few key words. What SSSpider has been doing up to now is rather special, but the following steps are unique to this application and where our technology starts to take effect.

Step 3. SSSpider having contacted the list of search engines, downloads the required number of documents mentioned in their reports directly from each location. In doing so, SSSpider obtains the most current information. Sites that are "down" are automatically bypassed, as are those that even though the Search Engine indicated a match was possible, SSSpider still didn’t find anything that was a close enough match. All this is being carried out automatically with nothing required of you. If you have performed searches using the popular search engines, you will quickly appreciate the time needed to manually search 20 sites using one search engine not 20!

Step 4. SSSpider parses each document using an intelligent text search engine embedded in the program. This text search engine matches text in each document with the Search Phrase you launched and selects from the document a quotation or an extract that includes matching text for the search phrase. These quotations are then sorted by relevancy (best matches on top), and SSSpider then creates a report of what it has found.

Step 5. The final step is for SSSpider to place the report into your library, and if user preferences are set up to do so, your default Internet browser will be loaded and the newly created query report will be displayed. SSSpider repeats the above steps until all the queries you launched have been completed. In this way you can launch multiple queries and as SSSpider works in the background continuing writing that important letter, attend a meeting or take a well deserved coffee break. The choice is yours, SSSpider can be set up to work as you want it to, limit the time for the query to be processed, restrict the number of documents to be downloaded, create your own lists of search sites to visit; all these items are defaults that are user definable.

See also: Submitting Queries and Viewing Results and Editing SSSpider Preferences