What is a specialized search engine?

No one, not even Google, can be considered an expert in all domains! In addition, it is now a widely accepted fact that it is far more difficult to deploy a search engine in a company than on the Web. An Internet-based search engine pulls out whatever it happens to find. However in a corporate environment, locating the right document and all the other relevant documents can be critical to your business!

That’s probably why more and more companies are turning to customized search engines that are adapted to their business and that meet their specific needs.
 
To effectively implement a customized search solution, you must be able to:
 
1 - Understand the document or types of documents used in a particular sector
 
A 50-page patent drafted in technical-legal jargon bears no relationship to a 5-line real estate ad written in a telegraphic style, a well-crafted newspaper article, a job application resume, or the description of items on an e-commerce site. A specialized search engine has to take these considerations into account.

2- Understand the specific needs of users
 
Looking for the innovative aspects of an invention in a patent database, a job that matches your talents on a Job Board, or a camcorder on an e-commerce site are all very different types of needs. A customized search engine can apply its knowledge of user requirements to adapt the search. It knows that an engineer reading a patent will be particularly interested in the advantages of the product, or the people who invented it, for instance, while e-commerce browsers will be more concerned by brands and prices…

3- Understand the application’s business context

The product specifications of the latest Sony PDA and a scientific article on recent advances in biotechnology are not written in the same language, nor do they include the same words, as a text on nuclear physics, for example. How can you find the “right” documents in response to a query if the query doesn’t contain the right words? Only specialized search engines that integrate field-specific semantic dictionaries have that capability.