A Query Language for Information Graphs

In this paper we propose a database model and query language for information retrieval systems. The information graph model and Graph Object Access Language (GOAL) allow integrated handling of data, information and knowledge along with a variety of specialized objects (e.g., for geographic or multimedia information systems). There is flexible support for hyperbases, thesauri, lexicons, and both relational and object-oriented types of DBMS applications. In this paper we give the first published account of our new, powerful model and language (GOAL), illustrate their use, and compare them with related work.