Semantic search. Guha et al. distinguish two major forms of search: navigational and research.[3] In navigational search, the user is using the search engine as a navigation tool to navigate to a particular intended document. Semantic search is not applicable to navigational searches. In research search, the user provides the search engine with a phrase which is intended to denote an object about which the user is trying to gather/research information. There is no particular document which the user knows about and is trying to get to. Rather, the user is trying to locate a number of documents which together will provide the desired information.
Semantic search lends itself well with this approach that is closely related with exploratory search. Rather than using ranking algorithms such as Google's PageRank to predict relevancy, semantic search uses semantics, or the science of meaning in language, to produce highly relevant search results. Disambiguation[edit] Commonly used searching methodologies[edit]