JumpStation and JumpStation II
The JumpStation is a way of referencing the information available on
the Web. Users query a large database of document information and are
presented with a set of links relating to their query. The document
database allows interactive searching of documents by title, header,
and subject (the latter works only within JumpStation II). The server
relies upon automated robot for it's data acquisition.
The JumpStation is now superseded by the JumpStation II. Support for
the original will be reduced in order to complete the new version.
Important Note: The latest information on this server indicates
that it has not been updated since April 1994, and the author's mail
address is seems to be out of data. Even the online documentation is
pretty sparse and divided between the two services.
Key Links
URLs for Front Pages:
URLs for Search Pages:
URL for
JumpStation II Help Page:
http://www.stir.ac.uk/jsbin/jsii?jsii_doc_search#Instructions
Home Organization:
University of
Stirling, United Kingdom
Organization
-
Both services are solely searchable resources which scan internal
databases built by a document gatherer. You can search for keywords
in the document titles, headers, and/or subjects with the following
limitations:
- Multiple Keywords are treated as if grouped by a Boolean Or in
JumpStation, and by Boolean And in JumpStation II.
- The original JumpStation does not allow as much flexibility in
combining keywords for searching, and cannot perform subject searching.
- Document "subjects" are defined as those words which occur
frequently within that file.
- There seem to be no sophisticated search controls such as root and
suffix management, real boolean searching, or match quality control.
- Both servers allow forms-based access, but the older JumpStation is
the only one to provide non-forms support.
- The content of this server has no particular focus or orientation.
Administration
- Documents are primarily gathered by a Web robot, but there is an
indication that the administrator performs some indexing work also.
- With the increased usage, the author warns that some requests may be
refused to the current server load. However, the response time for a
reasonable search was about 15-30 seconds.
- As stated above, this index seems to have been left unattended since
April 1994, and only periodically maintained then. No search returned
matches less than a year old, and the number of dead links was impressive.
The latest available statistics 275,000 entries in the database
spanning 1500 servers.
- Additional Services
- The documentation for the JumpStation seems to be lacking and unusable
beyond the front page, and the information for JumpStation II is a
little more organized but just as incomplete.
- The search pages supply only a minimal explanation of the options
or the nature of the search to perform.
- The information returned by a (verbose) search includes document
title, timestamp, file size, and file type.
Evaluation
Example Usage
Demonstrate a sample search session explicitly listing:
- Topic
- Keyword(s), Boolean search controls
- Documents delivered
- Output format
fprefect@umich.edu - 6/12/95