OR/16/047 Conclusion

Nkisi-Orji, I. 2016. Semantic information retrieval for geoscience resources: results and analysis of an online questionnaire of current web search experiences. British Geological Survey Internal Report, OR/16/047.

While most search applications only match strings of characters between search terms and documents being searched, the outcome of this survey shows that individuals often consider semantics. There is vast support for the implementation of semantic features to help assist in search; these include features to add narrower/child terms, equivalent terms or alternative spellings to original search intent and; features to specify the context/meaning of ambiguous search terms. The majority of respondents will like to decide when to use these features for a search. Instead of an automated process which tries to disambiguate terms, most respondents prefer to select the intended meaning of search terms but only when there can be ambiguity.

This survey was designed in the initial stages of research on semantic search. Results from the analysis of collected responses, which have been discussed in this report, will contribute towards the formulation of research questions and hypotheses. As this was an opt-in survey, we are unable to tell if there was any selection bias in respondents.