Semantic Search Engines

  

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As the ability for innovation workers to harness knowledge is fast becoming one of the most important source of competitive differentiation and advantage, a phrase we are seeing popping up more frequently these days is semantic search engines. This raises a few important questions – What is semantic search technology, how is it different from a regular web search, and why is semantic search important to innovation?

At the core, a semantic search engine has the ability to understand the relationships between keywords, phrases or parts of speech within a search phrase, therefore allowing it understand the underlying meaning of the entire phrase.  For example, a semantic search engine would be able to easily distinguish the differences between the following phrases made up of the same ‘keywords’ but with obvious different implications:

•  How to burn a dress?
•  How to dress a burn?

So how is semantic search different from traditional web search?  In the example above, the phrases are made up of the same keywords, while the subject/action relationships are reversed. In traditional web search, which are based on ranking algorithms, since the relationships between the sentence parts are unknown, the engines would return identical or nearly identical results, even though it was being asked two completely different questions.  Additional problems with web search also arise when the keywords are too specific, producing few or no results, or too general, in which case the results are overwhelming and irrelevant.

Alternatively, since semantic search technology understands the meaning of the above sentences, it would be able to produce highly relevant answers to the questions. The goal of semantics is to always provide the direct insights and answers needed to complete research tasks, rather than burying those ideas among scores of irrelevant documents.

Why is semantic search important to innovation?  Invention Machine Goldfire, an innovation intelligence platform, is backed by a powerful and patented semantic search engine which is used to knowledge-enable innovation workers. 

As part of the Goldfire innovation software solution, users can semantically search both internal (local drives, shared drives, email, etc.) and external (websites, patents, articles, etc.) content while performing their technical research.  Goldfire’s semantic search engine is uniquely designed to support cause-effect search to accelerate problem solving and speed ideation. This is important because it allows companies to infuse knowledge into their innovation processes, saving valuable time and money, reducing costs, and increasing productivity.

To learn more about the powerful semantic search behind Goldfire’s innovation intelligence platform request a demo to see Goldfire in action.