A semantic web-based approach for context-aware user query formulation and information retrieval

Abstract

Formulating unambiguous queries in the Semantic Web applications is a challenging task for users. This article presents a new approach in guiding users to formulate clear requests based on their common nature of querying for information. The approach known as the front-end approach gives users an overview about the system data through a virtual data component which stores the extracted metadata of the data storage sources in the form of an ontology. This approach reduces the ambiguities in users'requests at a very early stage and allows the query process to effectively perform in fulfilling users'demands in a context-aware manner Furthermore, the approach provides a powerful query engine, called context-aware querying, that recommends the appropriate query patterns according to the user's querying context. Copyright © 2008, IGI Global.