Web searching with entity mining at query time

Abstract

In this paper we present a method to enrich the classical web searching with entity mining that is performed at query time. The results of entity mining (entities grouped in categories) can complement the query answers with useful for the user information which can be further exploited in a faceted search-like interaction scheme. We show that the application of entity mining over the snippets of the top-hits of the answers, can be performed at real-time. However mining over the snippets returns less entities than mining over the full contents of the hits, and for this reason we report comparative results for these two scenarios. In addition, we show how Linked Data can be exploited for specifying the entities of interest and for providing further information about the identified entities, implementing a kind of entity-based integration of documents and (semantic) data. Finally, we discuss the applicability of this approach on professional search, specifically for the domains of fisheries/aquaculture and patents. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.