Abstract
This paper proposes the integration of Keyword Map (an interactive information visualization tool) and an agent-based system architecture for supporting exploratory searches. Keyword Map can be used for analyzing data from various perspectives. A user can suitably arrange keywords using interaction functions of the system in order to reflect his/her data analysis requirements. Typically, an information gathering agent searches for information according to the user's specific requirement and generates data for presenting search results on the interface. Although agent-based information search systems have been developed to be flexible, they cannot support the user's exploratory search process because such a process cannot explicitly reflect the information requirement. By employing Keyword Map as the interface between a user and the information gathering agent, the proposed approach aims to connect the process required for the user's data analysis with the agent's retrieval process. The usability of the proposed approach has been demonstrated by applying it for existing search systems for three different types of tasks.
