Using fuzzy ontology for query refinement in a personalized abstract search engine

Recommending alternate queries during information seeking activities is an important feature in a Web-based search engine because users often do not know the exact terms to locate the information relevant to their interests. This paper describes an approach to construct automatically a fuzzy ontology that can be used to refine a user's query. The method has been incorporated in a domain-specific search engine namely Personalized Abstract Search Services (PASS). Preliminary results suggest that the basic approaches adopted as well as the technique developed for practical use are intuitively promising.