Search Computing: The European Way to Query the Web

There are several complex queries whose target data sources are scattered over the Web, such as "Who is the best doctor to cure insomnia in a nearby hospital?" or "Where can I attend an interesting conference in my field close to a sunny beach?". Unfortunately, no software system can accept such queries nor compute the answer. We at Politecnico di Milano are running a project bringing forward the idea of search computing as a new multi-disciplinary science which will provide the abstractions, foundations, methods, and tools required to answer these and many similar queries. The distinctive feature of the project is its focus on search services: indeed, so far, the emerging paradigm of service computing has been neutral to the presence of search facilities, whereas, in our vision, ranking is a prominent factor for service composition. Also, while state-of-art search systems answer generic or domain-specific queries, search computing enables answering questions via a constellation of dynamically selected, cooperating search services. In order to achieve the project goals, new foundational theories are needed, rooted into formal disciplines such as mathematics, statistics, and optimization theory, together with contributions from other sciences such as human-computer interfaces, economical sciences, and sociology.