Focused Web searching with PDAs

The Stanford Power Browser project addresses the problems of interacting wi th the World Wide Web through wirelessly connected Personal Digital Assista nts (PDAs). These problems include bandwidth limitations, screen real-estat e shortage, battery capacity, and the time costs of pen-based search keywor d input. As a way to address bandwidth and battery life limitations, we pro vide local sire search facilities for all sites. We incrementally index Web sites in real time as the PDA user visits them. These indexes have narrow scope at first, and improve as the user dwells on the site, or as more user s visit the site over time. We address the keyword input problem by providi ng site specific-keyword completion, and indications of keyword selectivity within sites. The system is implemented on the Palm Pilot platform, using a Metricom radio link. We describe the user level experience, and then pres ent the analyses that informed our technical decisions. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.