Ontology-based query refinement for semantic portals

Abstract

The Semantic Web aims to provide access to information for humansand machines. Practical implementations of Semantic Web technologies need to consider aspects such as scalability and reliability to be attractive for industrial practitioners. Our approach shows a portal infrastructure which benefits on the one hand from the access facilities provided by Semantic Web technologies and on the other hand from the applicability of current Web technologies for industrial strength applications. The main achievement of the approach is an up-and-running network of content-interchanging portals. Accompanying tools and methods are provided for setting up such networks from scratch or to put them on top of existing information sources. In the paper, special attention is given to the ontology-supported query refinement service that enables a user to find the relevant results even if his query does not match his information need ideally. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.