The consumer-based search: a taxonomic

reaction

August 23, 2007

Julia Remick

Information Scientist

Yellow Book USA

User interface for yellowbook.com

About our site

Upgraded to taxonomy-driven logic for category searches in December 2005

Philosophy: users first, advertisers second

Currently maintaining aggressive release schedule

Business name search also utilizes alias tables

Our taxonomy: properties

Product + service taxonomy Housed within a proprietary application

inherited from our parent company (UK) Hierarchical structure with categories

represented at the highest level Search categories are aligned with print

headings and maintained accordingly Maintained and developed by team of

information scientists

Basic structure of the taxonomy

Heading example

How to sustain and expand a taxonomy

Heading development Top search term review/repair Integration of third-party taxonomies Fake it with good search logic

Taxonomy + search logic: Match &

relevancy techniques

Boolean logic Stemming, fuzzy string searching, etc. Term frequencies in taxonomy Stop lists Comparisons to ad content Ask the metadata

Taxonomy challenges

Disambiguation/refinement

Taxonomy challenges (con’t)

Frequently changing logic Universal resolutions often impossible “Completeness” of the taxonomy

When taxonomy meets Web 2.0

Collaborative categorization: folksonomies (tags!)

Issues:Often unstructured (non-hierarchical)Security, inconsistency, spamming all

issues that require vigilant monitoring/editing

A “growing season” Possible solution: taxonomy-directed

folksonomy