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Internet & IT
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2006-11-17 07:09:13-05
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New software tool provides an identity fix for search engines
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London, Nov 17: Searching the internet for someone with a common name could become much easier now, as technology experts at the University of Tokyo have developed a software that automatically distinguishes between individuals by analysing the details of search results. For example it can differentiate between the King of pop Michael Jackson and a beer guru with the same name, both of who appear on the first page of results for "Michael Jackson" on Google's search engine. When a user searches for a name on Google, the program will look at the first 100 results returned, and examines common words in the search summary to see if the results will relate to different people of the same name. The program will also give users a estimate on how many different identities for the same name have been returned. Testing revealed that the accuracy is between 70% and 95% accurate at distinguishing between different names. Co-developer of the program, Danushka Bollegala, reckons that the tool will really help webwatchers refine their searches. "The keywords extracted by the algorithm can be used to suggest better queries to the user," New Scientist quoted him as saying. The work was presented at the 17th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence this summer in Riva del Garda, Italy.
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