Bringing Precision to Desktop Search: A Predicate-based Desktop Search Architecture

Google and other products have revolutionized the way we search for information on the Internet, Intranet, and on our desktop. However, the current generation of search products does not exploit the structure and semantics of data, as defined by application programs (e.g., Word or Excel) that generate the data. This paper shows how search technology can be enhanced with implicit predicates, in order to take into account the structure and semantics defined by applications. Better search results are produced with tolerable performance overhead, while at the same time maintaining the simplicity of the keyword search interface.