This directory contains files for Technical Report CSRI-405. The files in this directory are the following: 1) README (< 1 KB - the ASCII file you are now reading) 2) hilltop.ps (2,025 KB - PostScript) 3) hilltop.ps.gz (120 KB - PostScript compressed with the program "gzip") 4) hilltop.html (35 KB - HTML file) 5) *.gif, *.jpg (various images used in the HTML version) If you have the UNIX "gunzip" program, get the file hilltop.ps.gz. Remember to transfer the file in binary mode. After the transfer, "gunzip" the file. If you do not have the UNIX "gunzip" program, get the file hilltop.ps in ASCII mode. After transfering the file, print it on a PostScript printer. You can also view the HTML version with any WWW browser by using the URL: ftp://ftp.cs.toronto.edu/csrg-technical-reports/405/hilltop.html If you have any questions or comments about this technical report, please contact georgem@cs.toronto.edu ABSTRACT: In response to a query a search engine returns a ranked list of documents. If the query is broad (i.e., it matches many documents) then the returned list is usually too long to view fully. Studies show that users usually look at only the top 10 to 20 results. In this paper, we propose a novel ranking scheme for broad queries that places the most authoritative pages on the query topic at the top of the ranking. Our algorithm operates on a special index of "expert documents." These are a subset of the pages on the WWW identified as directories of links to non-affiliated sources on specific topics. Results are ranked based on the match between the query and relevant descriptive text for hyperlinks on expert pages pointing to a given result page. We present a prototype search engine that implements our ranking scheme and discuss its performance. With a relatively small (2.5 million page) expert index, our algorithm was able to perform comparably on broad queries with the best of the mainstream search engines.