Techniques for searching for documents LO21551

Brock Vodden (brock.vodden@odyssey.on.ca)
Sat, 8 May 1999 21:12:49 -0400

Replying to LO21517 --

Roy Greenhalgh asked for sources of information on systems using pattern
recognition techniques for searching for documents.

I have attended a couple of conferences on this topic and did a lot of
literature research in connection with a project a few years ago. The
conference in Toronto was presented by the Delphi Consulting Group, and a
conference in Washington, D.C. was by the META Group. Both of these groups
have excellent material.

The way this process was described, you could enter a document of the type
you were trying to find as a search criterion, then ask the search engine
to find all the articles LIKE this one. The system would do a structural
analysis of your criterion document, and then look for others with a
similar structure.

They described many search techniques. Thesaurus searches not only seek
the actual word keys you enter, but synonyms and related words. Proximity
searches have been around a while, in which you can search for documents
containing the word a particular word with another particular word
occurring not more than 6 words away from the first word.

I know that Delphi have a Web site, and the META Group probably do as
well.

Brock Vodden - Vodden Consulting
"Where Systems and People Meet"
Serving South Western Ontario
brock.vodden@odyssey.on.ca

-- 

"Brock Vodden" <brock.vodden@odyssey.on.ca>

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