Searching via Keywords or Concept Hierarchies - Which is Better?

Abstract

We have carried out a comparison of interactive search in a homogenous information retrieval domain using a keyword search engine on the one hand and a concept ontology system on the other. The experimental design was that of the TREC Interactive Track. While the results showed that keyword search was superior on this occasion, we have identified the ideal characteristics of an ontology and shown that the one used for the study did not conform to these. Future work will include repeating the experiment with an optimal hierarchy and establishing numerical attributes of an ontology relative to a particular task domain.

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