Implementation of web product search engine (part I)

• Main Author: Sim, Chia Yee.
• Other Authors: Hoi Chu Hong
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Computer science and engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/52062
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Online shopping is becoming increasingly popular with easy access to the internet. Compared to a traditional retail store, it provides many advantages for both retailers and consumers. Traditional product search methods are limited to category and text searches. Having the ability to perform an image search and even combine it with other search methods will allow users to easily find their desired products. As the initial search will not always return the desired results, search refining options will be required to refine the search results. The purpose of this project is to improve on a visual-based web product search engine with a focus on website user interface design and extending the search functionalities. A web service was improved to provide combination of search methods and provide search refining options. The options include product attributes, colour, text and ordering of search results. A user interface to utilise the web service was developed with ease of use and being minimalistic in mind. This allows users to easily access information that they are most interested in and having the information presented without clutter. The website is ensured to be functional across all modern browsers and to have basic functionalities even when JavaScript or CSS is disabled. This gives users a consistent experience regardless of their choice of browser. It also ensures that no user is excluded if JavaScript or CSS is not available and gives an enhanced experience to those that have it. Going forward, caching and load balancing can be implemented as the website traffic increases to maintain the same standard of performance. Mobile applications for the website can be developed to utilise the camera and native user interface to give the user a better experience. Connecting the web service to social networking services can give the website a greater exposure and data mining can help to improve the user experience.