Searching the Unsearchable: Inducing Serendipitous Insights

Abstract

Although no serious efforts seem to have been devoted yet to the theoretical and experimental study of the phenomenon, the web is recognizably a well suited medium for information encountering, the accidental discovery of information that is not sought for. This is the very essence of serendipity, the faculty of making fortunate and unexpected discoveries by accident. This paper presents Max, a sof t ware agent that uses simple information retrieval techniques and heuristic search to wander on the Internet and uncover useful, and not sought for, information that may stimulate serendipitous insights.