Search Engines and Algorithms: Optimizing for Yahoo! Search and AltaVista - Yahoo! Concept Search
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Yahoo! Concept Search
In recent patent filings, it is clear that Yahoo is attempting to become a better concept engine, as well. What is the theory behind a concept engine?
Yahoo says, “What human beings think in terms of are natural concepts. For example, ‘hawaii’ and ‘new york city’ are vastly different queries in terms of length as measured by number of words but for a human being they share one important characteristic: they are each made up of one concept. In contrast, a person regards the query ‘new york city law enforcement’ as fundamentally different because it is made up of two distinct concepts: ‘new york city’ and ‘law enforcement’.
“Human beings also think in terms of logical relationships between concepts. For example, ‘law enforcement’ and ‘police’ are related concepts since the police are an important agency of law enforcement; a user who types in one of these concepts may be interested in sites related to the other concept even if those sites do not contain the particular word or phrase the user happened to type…” It is not clear when or how Yahoo intends to incorporate this, or what technology they have up their sleeves, but Yahoo has been very good about announcing their changes before they happen.
What is not clear is how Yahoo intends to implement this type of technology, or whether they plan to offer concept search as a separate search engine from their new social search. But what is very apparent is the ambition and dedication to try to bring the searchers exactly what they are looking for, and to personalize them according to each individual’s own needs.
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