This is by Professor Abraham Bernstein
. It’s very interesting, it’s all about what the semantic web is in brief, but mostly about the various techniques used such as SPARQL, Querix, Ginseng, OWL DL…these are however rubbish for humans mostly. He explores how to make the semantic web accessible to the general public.
One of the solutions involve natural language queries (yey!) – but it’s a “complete mess” at the moment, being ambiguous, domain specific, etc…BUT he did find, as I did, and Jimmy Lin did, that users preferred natural language querying.
did, that users preferred natural language querying. During the Google Ninja challenge I set you all, I have found that the majority of people are indeed using natural language in Google, and I think this is because of the complexity of the search context. Watch this space.
I set you all, I have found that the majority of people are indeed using natural language in Google, and I think this is because of the complexity of the search context. Watch this space.
One problem of natural languages is that they are not logical, and their use of operators indiscriminately or on a carefree way. Correctly interpreting what is actually meant in a particular context looks like a big challenge.
You’re quite right, it’s a very big challenge. It is however an area of research that is advancing.