Semantic Searching

 

What is semantic searching? It's the idea that resources are related in meaning, beyond the languages, words and idioms used to convey that meaning. For example, let's say you're looking for information about "terrorist organizations". If you type those words into Google, you will get resources containing those words.

 

What you are actually looking for is information about real terrorist organizations. There are many and you do not know all of them by name. So typing each organization's name or alias' into Google is tedious and not possible.

 

Concept Matching

 

Rather, you want the search engine to understand that you are looking for information about the single concept "terrorist organization", meaning any group or organization that is identified as one. Not the words "terrorist organization". The result of a semantic search in this regard would produce search results containing information about groups such as Hamas, Al Qaeda and the like. These documents do not have to contain the words "terrorist organization".

 

This is the difference between semantic searching and today's Google searches.

Let's try another thought experiment.

 

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