Soft approaches to information retrieval and information access on the Web: An introduction to the special topic section

World Wide Web is a popular and interactive medium used to collect, disseminate, and access an increasingly huge amount of information, which constitutes the mainstay of the so-called information and knowledge society. Because of its spectacular growth, related to both Web resources (pages, sites, and services) and number of users, the Web is nowadays the main information repository and provides some automatic systems for locating, accessing, and retrieving information. However, an open and crucial question remains: how to provide fast and effective retrieval of the information relevant to specific users' needs. This is a very hard and complex task, since it is pervaded with subjectivity, vagueness, and uncertainty. The expression soft computing refers to techniques and methodologies that work synergistically with the aim of providing flexible information processing tolerant of imprecision, vagueness, partial truth, and approximation. So, soft computing represents a good candidate to design effective systems for information access and retrieval on the Web. One of the most representative tools of soft computing is fuzzy set theory. This special topic section collects research articles witnessing some recent advances in improving the processes of information access and retrieval on the Web by using soft computing tools, and in particular, by using fuzzy sets and/or integrating them with other soft computing tools. In this introductory article, we first review the problem of Web retrieval and the concept of soft computing technology. We then briefly introduce the articles in this section and conclude by highlighting some future research directions that could benefit from the use of soft computing technologies. The explosive growth of the World Wide Web stimulates the development of fast and effective automated systems that support an easy and effective access to the information relevant to specific users' needs (Lawrence & Giles, 1998). Analysis of some characteristics of the Web can help us better understand the problem of information retrieval and information access on the Web, and reasons why its use offers so many opportunities for research: • The Web is an extremely dynamic information source because the information it holds receives constant updates and because it is constantly growing although in a disorganized and uncontrolled way. • The Web presents much redundant and noisy information, and only a small portion of it contains truly relevant or useful information. These are some of the reasons activity aimed at locating information relevant to specific information needs is extremely difficult. A user …