Contextual relevance feedback in web information retrieval

In this paper, we present an alternative approach to the problem of contextual relevance feedback in web-based information retrieval. Our approach utilises a rich contextual model that exploits a user's implicit and explicit data. Each user's implicit data are gathered from their Internet search histories on their local machine. The user's explicit data are captured from a lexical database, a shared contextual knowledge base and domain-specific concepts using data mining techniques and a relevance feedback approach. This data is later used by our approach to modify queries to more accurately reflect the user's interests as well as to continually build the user's contextual profile and a shared contextual knowledge base. Finally, the approach retrieves personalised or contextual search results from the search engine using the modified/expanded query. Preliminary experiments indicate that our approach has the potential to not only aid in the contextual relevance feedback but also contribute towards the long term goal of intelligent relevance feedback in web-based information retrieval.