A classification of mutational approaches for genetic search

Genetic algorithms for Internet Search were classified a lot in the open literature, but one specific aspect there off - the mutational approaches - was not. This paper represents an effort to shot light on the existing mutational approaches in the context of the genetic algorithms that they are a part of. Major contributions of this paper are: (a) An original classification, which opens some potentially fruitful research avenues; (b) A block diagram based representation of the four major classes of the newly introduced classification; (c) Uniform pseudo-code based presentation of selected algorithms, in a way that enables easy comparison; (d) Discussion of essential issues in a way that opens up new avenues for future research.