Using semantic knowledge to improve web query processing

Although search engines are very useful for obtaining information from the World Wide Web, users still have problems obtaining the most relevant information when processing their web queries. Prior research has attempted to use different types of knowledge to improve web querying processing. This research presents a methodology for employing a specific body of knowledge, ResearchCyc, which provides semantic knowledge about different application domains. Semantic knowledge from ResearchCyc, as well as linguistic knowledge from WordNet, is employed. An analysis of different queries from different application domains using the semantic and linguistic knowledge illustrates how more relevant results can be obtained.