Update: Baidu Tests "Entity Search" Feature
DoNews, 11/24/12
Gu Simiao, a senior engineer at Chinese internet company Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), recently elaborated on the company's newly released "entity search" feature. According to Gu, Baidu has developed and released a number of new search features over the years, including "keyword," "SNS," and "entity" search. As described by Gu, Baidu's search targets have progressed from "pieces of information" to "people" and "entities." Baidu's new entity search feature is a form of keyword search, but instead of focusing on keyword ranking, the search entity feature uses a "targeted search" method, grouping search results into categories such as people, movies, software, novels, and companies. Baidu's search engine can now, to a certain degree, understand the intended meaning of search queries. A search for "movies directed by Zhang Yimou" will yield a list of films by the director, in addition to traditional search results.
Gu explained that Baidu used data mining technology to complete the accumulation of entity information, search attribute mining, and related information mining needed to develop its entity search feature. Behind every entity search made on the Baidu platform is a database of entity search related information gathered from a massive volume of web pages. After being gathered, entity search information is then separated into categories, along with related search attributes, to be more easily associated with certain search queries.
Gu added that while entity search inquiries currently make up a very small proportion of Baidu searches, in the future they will come to play a more important role in search.
Editor's Note: For more information on this topic, please see "Baidu Tests Knowledge Graph-like Search Feature," MD 11/19/12 issue.
Keywords: Gu Simiao Internet Baidu BIDU online search
Sending
