Web directories have been playing a vital role by offering portal service for the Internet community since the first was born in 1994 by Yahoo!. However, with the vast information explosion over the Internet in recent years, the traditional classification method employed by web directory reveals more and more usability issues. The consequences are obvious: web directory is standing in the way but Internet users turn the corner into search engine. However, due to the different natures of the two tools, Internet searchers are not always successful in replacing web directories with search engines. During our research, we found that the non-adaptive classification method of web directories and their representing structures were the major problem. Therefore, we proposed a new search mechanism combined with a personalised approach to improve usability.

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