Search computing, which has evolved from service computing, focuses on
building the answers to complex search queries by interacting with a
constellation of cooperating search services, using ranking and joining
of results as the dominant factors for service composition. The field is
multi-disciplinary in nature, and takes advantage of contributions from
other research areas such as knowledge representation, human-computer
interfaces, psychology, sociology, economics and legal sciences. The
book is divided into three parts. The first part includes some visionary
contributions on the latest trends in search, which is becoming
increasingly task-oriented and is starting to use ontological knowledge
in order to manage complex queries. The second part explores background
and related technologies, which can be considered as parallel fields of
research, useful both for setting the theoretical premises for search
computing and for providing a technological framework for building
search computing systems and applications. The third part delves into
the conceptual and technological problems and issues arising when
dealing with search computing as a new search paradigm. It provides a
unified view of the results of the Search Computing project as achieved
exactly one year after its starting date.