Reading Notes For Week 12

User Profiles

1. classification: the way information is collected, the life period of the profile and structure.
2. five basic approaches to user identification: software agents, logins, enhanced proxy serves, cookies and session ids.
3. The searches is not limited to the Web, but they would also include databases to which the user has access, and the users personal documents. Such search systems are implemented in tools like Google Desktop Search.
4. User identification can be obtained using mechanisms such as session ids or cookies that provide anonymity. Even methods requiring a login process can be anonymous if users are be allowed to use pseudonyms rather than their true identity. 
5. In user customization, a recommendation system provides an interface that allows users to construct a representation of their own interests. Often check boxes are used to allow a user to select from the known values of attributes,
6. Content-based recommendation systems recommend an item to a user based upon a description of the item and a profile of the user’s interests. While a user profile may be entered by the user, it is commonly learned from feedback the user provides on items. 
7. Personalized Web search has emerged as one of the hottest topics for both the Web industry and academic researchers.