A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, School of Advanced Technologies

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2002

The Internet is a vast place comprised of millions of computers sending information back and forth in packets. Many have likened the Internet to a huge, global library. While true in some aspects, it has some unique differences. There is no central "card catalog"; the Internet's growth is outpacing the ability of humans or technology to keep up with it; its sheer size is unknown and perhaps unknowable; and content is (to say the least) of uneven quality. One of the essential challenges of the Internet is to make its value available to the millions of new users who have had no formal training or experience in query formulation or search strategies. There are many site search tools available, for almost every platform, web server and site you can imagine but the general procedure in applying it is still a challenge to most web developers. Adding a search engine does increase the complexity of a website's infrastructure. Therefore, the promising advantages of object-oriented modeling over the traditional approach will be used to meet this challenge. With this challenge in mind, the author had decided to focus the study into developing a methodology that would help website developers in adding a site search capabilities website. The author had proposed an object-oriented model in analyzing and designing the site search engine application. Finally, this model was implemented in the case of UNEP Regional Resource Center for Asia and the Pacific (RRC.AP) website.