SES Chicago - December 7-11, 2009

October 12, 2009

LexisNexis Integrates Semantic Search Technology into Patent Research

LexisNexis is introducing semantic search technology into its intellectual property research products. The technology was developed by Pure Discovery, based out of Dallas, TX.

"With semantic search technology we have changed the very nature of online patent research by providing users with an additional means of researching patent and non-patent prior art," said Peter Vanderheyden, LexisNexis vice president of Global Intellectual Property.

LexisNexis says the semantic search technology will feature the following:

  • Transparency: The semantic tech will "enhance" each query and then shown to the user for complete understanding.
  • Increased control: Users have the ability to add, delete, increase or decrease the importance of all query words in a visual query interface called a "querycloud."
  • Fully federated: The semantic search platform can associate semantic searches to virtually any index, whether it resides internally or on the web.
  • Scalability: The LexisNexis index includes semantic intelligence from over 10 million patent documents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's patent index.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 27, 2009

hakia Unveils Commercial Ontology

hakia is unveiling their new approach to the semantic web by introducing Commercial Ontology. Dr. Riza C Berkan, CEO, took to the official hakia blog to explain.

Commercial Ontology is able to recognize phrases and terms as opposed to typical ontologies which Berkan says only look at one word. The word Commercial must be taken broadly - extremely broadly. You could be looking up a phrase like "Ricky Henderson statistics," with no intention to buy anything. But it's still considered commercial because of Henderson's career in Major League Baseball, which is a commercial entity.

Berkan used the word "road kill" to demonstrate the difference between Commercial and traditional ontologies. (Road kill is disturbingly commercial, btw.)

Traditional ontologies search the word road and the word kill separately before making a connection. hakia's Commercial Ontology recognizes the phrase "road kill" from the beginning. Here's a graphic that maps out the differences:

According to Berkan, another major difference is that traditional ontologies use manual work while hakia's Commercial Ontology can be automated.

The Commercial Ontology will be released at some point in the future. No further details were given.

In the meantime, what do you think about Commercial Ontology? Is it the future of Natural Language Processing? Share your opinion below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 23, 2009

Semanti Firefox Add-on Aims to Reduce Keyword Refinement, Provide Better Results

If you're like most searchers, you find yourself refining your searches until you find what you're looking for. But if Bruce Johnson from Semanti has his way, you'll start getting the results you want from your first search.

Johnson is the CEO of Semanti, a San Francisco-based semantic search company. Today, Semanti is officially launching their brand new Firefox add-on. The add-on uses an 8 million term ontology to aid searchers with their keywords and phrases.

Semanti can figure out that when you type in fuel economy, that other terms such as mpg are relevant to your search as well. No need to go back to your original search to add on that second term in the hopes of finding new results.

When installed, you can use Facebook Connect to sign in. Then, Semanti will provide query suggestions for Google, Yahoo, and Bing. When the results page comes up, you'll see the Semanti results above the search engine's organic results. You can collapse the results if you wish.

Semanti ultimately relies on social search, hence the Facebook Connect. Johnson says that the sites that your social network visits are more likely to be relevant to you than the ones generated by a generic algorithm. Additionally, Johnson believes the "wisdom of the crowds" can fuel better search.

In order for that to happen, your network will need to actively be using and bookmarking Semanti. Of course, that's the big challenge in search - getting people to form new habits with new search engines. Johnson says that's why Semanti was developed as an add-on. You don't have to use a new search engine. You just use your default engine and then use the Semanti to bookmark.

Because of the social aspect, it takes a while for Semanti to work. Johnson and team may need to rework this since most people want their search to work out of the box. But to get an idea of what Semanti is like in all its glory, check out this video:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

June 19, 2008

Semantic Search Engine hakia Launches Syndication Web Services

Semantic search engine, hakia, has announced the launch of Syndication Web Services. The new service will allow third parties to use hakia search on websites, mobile applications and document management systems. Site owners can offer hakia's generic search, implement a custom search, or utilize a vertical search on their websites.

I spoke with hakia CEO Dr. Riza Berkan, and he says that the advantage with hakia's web search is the focus on the quality instead of popularity when it comes to delivering search results. hakia targets precision and accuracy in the goal of providing relevant results on a searcher's first attempt at a query.

Today's announcement includes 7 different ways in which third parties can utilize hakia's Syndication Web Services:

  • Web Search – Brings search results from the World Wide Web
  • News Search – Brings news articles for a given query
  • Vertical Search – Brings search results from a vertical (for example, health) or from a particular database (such as PubMed.org)
  • Summarizer – Provides a summary of a given text block or URL, ideal for content management systems
  • Categorizer – Identifies categorical terms from a given text (URL or text block
  • Characterizer –Identifies and expands descriptive phrases, keywords or tags. Ideal for SEM professionals and publishers
  • TMR (Text Meaning Representation) – Provides text meaning representation of a given text block, suitable for core technology development

Have you checked out hakia? Would you be inclined to use their new Syndication Web Services? Give your thoughts in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 29, 2007

Powerset Meets the Press

Powerset, the most talked about semantic search engine that no one has seen, is slowly opening its doors to scrutiny. Last night, the company hosted an event for bloggers and tech media at its San Francisco headquarters.

Some coverage of the event:

The company gave attendees a look under the hood, and introduced a new developer platform called Powerlabs. Both the search engine and partner program are expected to launch in September. “We want as many people in Powerlabs to help us build and test the product. Powerlabs tells us when we are ready to go. We could have 50,000 people QAing our product,” said Steve Newcomb, COO and co-founder of Powerset. So far, Powerlabs has 10,000 users, according to ZDNet's Farber.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 2:55 PM | Permalink

See More Posts From:

This Week | This Month

  var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-564586-7"); pageTracker._setDomainName(".searchenginewatch.com"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); window.collarity_appid = "incmedia"; //> //>
Top Jobs
more Jobs

Account Manager
Varick Media Management New York, United States

Reporting and Data Analyst
Varick Media Management New York, United States

Director of Marketing Communications
Avery Dennison Brea, United States

Publisher
Confidential Leading Publisher New York, United States

White Papers
more Research

0