Kanisa's Site Search: A Guided Search with NLP
NLP (natural language processing) falls into the realm of computational linguistics, a marriage between computer science and linguistic analysis. NLP's aim is to allow computers to understand text. Jeeves Solutions has developed NLP technology for search engines since 1996, incorporating the technology into the Internet search engine Ask Jeeves and JeevesOne, its former enterprise search engine. JeevesOne was acquired by Kanisa during the course of this review. It continues as KSS (Kanisa's Site Search).
Kanisa provides customer service applications that automate the problem-resolution process to allow customers access to information. KSS adds to the repertoire of Kanisa's other solutions in customer support centers, shared knowledge platforms and expert forums. It aims to help users find the answers to questions using a Guided Search based on NLP and either guidance questions or question templates.
Question templates are part of a natural language Knowledge Layer that is used to interpret user queries and match them to relevant content contained in an Answer Matrix. When a user asks a question, the Knowledge Layer interprets it and matches it with question templates and answers. The user is presented with a series of questions that narrow the focus of the search to discreet answers.
At base, the Knowledge Layer consists of a dictionary of words, phrases and concepts used to construct conceptual word groups and question phrases. Conceptual word groups, like synonyms and hyponyms, link related words and enable term expansion as well as concept identification and clarification. Word groups expand a concept to include all its parts. For example, if you asked "Which states have Network Computing Real-World Labs?" the search would expand the search from "states" to the actual states of the union where it will find Labs in Illinois, New York and Wisconsin. In addition, any form of a word may be used to expand a search. For example, a search for "sell" is expanded into selling, seller, sold or purchase. KSS also can index multiword terms such as "network infrastructure" and "voice over IP" rather than simply taking the components of the words and indexing them separately.
A basic dictionary is included out of the box. You can add entries, synonym groups, hyponym groups and even regular expressions to the basic dictionary and create your own question templates to guide users to correct answers. Alternatively, you can purchase Knowledge Packs that add words and concepts as well as a set of pre-existing question templates by industry. For example, we added a Knowledge Pack for Technology with question templates like:
- How can I boot from a disk or CD-ROM?
- How can I change my e-mail address?
- How can I chat with an engineer?
Question templates are triggered by the words used in a query. For example, "Where can I find product information?" or "Where are the editorial contacts for Network Computing?" Based on the question, KSS will match relevant question templates with answers and present them to the user. The question templates provide dynamic headlines like MondoSearch's Categories that attempt to capture the user's intention and guide him to relevant answers within groups. ~ Sean Doherty
|
RSS
