Supporting non-English Web searching: An experiment on the Spanish business and the Arabic medical intelligence portals

• Published in: Decision Support Systems Vol. 42; no. 3; pp. 1697 - 1714
• Main Authors: Chung, Wingyan, Bonillas, Alfonso, Lai, Guanpi, Xi, Wei, Chen, Hsinchun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.12.2006; Elsevier Science; Elsevier Sequoia S.A
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Arabic; Arabic language; Browsing; Business intelligence; Categorization; Computer science; control theory; systems; Computer systems and distributed systems. User interface; Decision making; Decision theory. Utility theory; Exact sciences and technology; Information systems. Data bases; Internet; Kohonen self-organizing map; Medical intelligence; Memory organisation. Data processing; Mutual information; Non-English Web searching; Operational research and scientific management; Operational research. Management science; Search engines; Searching; Software; Spanish; Spanish language; Studies; Summarization; Visualization; Web; Web portal; Web portals; Visualization; Browsing; Non-English Web searching; Business intelligence; Medical intelligence; Arabic; Web; Searching; Web portal; Spanish; Internet; Kohonen self-organizing map; Categorization; Mutual information; Summarization; Metalanguage; Technology watch; Quality assurance; Language processing; User interface; World wide web; Linguistics; Competitive intelligence; Medical application; Statistical analysis; Decision support system; Decision making; Abstract; Search engine; Information retrieval; Kohonen algorithm; Information browsing
• ISSN: 0167-9236; 1873-5797
• DOI: 10.1016/j.dss.2006.02.015

Although non-English-speaking online populations are growing rapidly, support for searching non-English Web content is much weaker than for English content. Prior research has implicitly assumed English to be the primary language used on the Web, but this is not the case for many non-English-speaking regions. This research proposes a language-independent approach that uses meta-searching, statistical language processing, summarization, categorization, and visualization techniques to build high-quality domain-specific collections and to support searching and browsing of non-English information. Based on this approach, we developed SBizPort and AMedPort for the Spanish business and Arabic medical domains respectively. Experimental results showed that the portals achieved significantly better search accuracy, information quality, and overall satisfaction than benchmark search engines. Subjects strongly favored the portals' search and browse functionality and user interface. This research thus contributes to developing and validating a useful approach to non-English Web searching and providing an example of supporting decision-making in non-English Web domains.