Web Markov skeleton processes and their applications

Abstract

We propose and discuss a new class of processes, web Markov skeleton processes (WMSP), arising from the information retrieval on the Web. The framework of WMSP covers various known classes of processes, and it contains also important new classes of processes. We explore the definition, the scope and the time homogeneity of WMSPs, and discuss in detail a new class of processes, mirror semi-Markov processes. In the last section we briefly review some applications of WMSPs in computing page importance on the Web.