Build a semantic Search Engine with BOSS

Ted — Sun, 03 May 2009 17:56:34 +0000

What’s the quickest way to build a semantic search engine? Use BOSS and and the Yahoo! Searchmonkey query filter. You’ll be surprised how much information is available to begin working with.

The Search Monkey Query Filter

This pattern works in the basic Yahoo! search box: searchmonkeyid:com.yahoo.page.uf.{microformat}. It tells Yahoo! Search to only return web pages that include a certain microformat. We can also use this in our BOSS API requests. Here’s a list of structured data surfaced in BOSS via SearchMonkey:

hAtom -
Represents a subset of the Atom syndication format

hCalendar -
Represents calendar dates and events, using a representation of
the iCalendar
standard

hCard -
Represents people, companies, organizations, and places, using a
representation of the vCard standard

hReview -
Represents reviews of products, services, businesses, and
events

XFN – Represents
human relationships using hyperlinks

Geo -
Represents geograhic coordinates

rel-tag – Marks
up the destination of a hyperlink as an author-designated
tag

adr -
Represents address information

Dublin
Core
- Allows developers to specify document metadata

FOAF
- Friend of a Friend specifies personal profiles and social
networks

SIOC
- Specifies elements in blogs, forums and Q&A sites

Other
supported vocabularies – See the SearchMonkey
documentation for a list of other supported vocabularies

Universal BOSS API Query Operators: Apply to Web, Images and News

SearchMonkey in Your BOSS

Now we have the ability to limit our search results to sites that use a particular microformat. We can now ask for this structured data to build our robust search engine We’ll use the SearchMonkey view attributes. There are two variations that define the format of the data.

view=searchmonkey_feed (dataRSS format)
view=searchmonkey_rdf (rdf format)

The following example shows how each look.

Let’s build a semantic music search engine. We’ll start by filtering for hreview microformats to get music reviews about CocoRosie: http://boss.yahooapis.com/ysearch/web/v1/cocorosie+searchmonkeyid:com.yahoo.page.uf.hreview?appid=Your_App_Id&format=xml&start=0&count=15&view=keyterms%2Csearchmonkey_feed%2Csearchmonkey_rdf.

We can use the following sample result to begin inserting reviews as well as other structured data. You’ve got the basic foundation for building an application that presents data-rich information to your users. Explore your favorite rdf and micformat queries to come up with new ideas.

Please leave a comment if you are already using this technique in your site or have similar ideas to share with others.

Sample Result




CocoRosie... love song tekno cocorosie.
Other Info. Lifetime rating of 4.83 ...]]>

http://lrd.yahooapis.com/.../**http%3A//www.blogskins.com/info/150260
2009/04/22
blogskins.com/info/150260]]>


	skin
	Tekno
	Love Song
	download
	BlogSkins
	Skin Info
	fade
	Skin type
	bg
	follow this link
	cocorosie
	Blogger
	tear
	keep well
	Lifetime
	logged-in
	BM
	Random Skin
	Myles
	hmm




	
		
		
			screaming!tragic
			
		
		
		
		
			animate_
			
		
		
		
		
			madeline_tn
			
		
		
	
	
		
		
			Tekno Love Song
			either continue th patern or don't fade the
			background, and all will look better. but it's still lovely!
			20080421
			
			
			screaming!tragic
			
			
			
			
		
		
		
		
			Tekno Love Song
			you need stars! I think the bg shouldn't fade off.
			Other than that, it's fabulous
			20070903
			
			
				animate_
				
			
			
			
		
		
		
		
			Tekno Love Song
			hmm.. the bg shouldn't be white. should continue
			the pattern thingy... plus, the picture somehow doesn't appeal to me..
			20070713
			
				
					madeline_tn
					
				
			
			
		
		
	
	
		love
		song
		tekno
		cocorosie
		
			
				love
			
		
		
			
				song
			
		
		
			
				tekno
			
		
		
			
				cocorosie
			
		
	




	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		screaming!tragic
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		animate_
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		madeline_tn
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		Tekno Love Song
	
	
		either continue th patern or
		don't fade the background, and all will look better. but it's still lovely!
		
	
	
		20080421
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		screaming!tragic
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		Tekno Love Song
	
	
		you need stars! I think
		the bg shouldn't fade off. Other than that, it's fabulous
	
	
		20070903
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		animate_
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		Tekno Love Song
	
	
	hmm.. the bg shouldn't
	be white. should continue the pattern thingy... plus, the picture somehow
	doesn't appeal to me..
	
	
		20070713
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		madeline_tn
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		love
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		song
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		tekno
	
	
		
	
	
		
	
	
		cocorosie
	


18514
BlogSkins.com Skin Info - Tekno Love Song
http://www.blogskins.com/info/150260

Updated BOSS pagination blog post

Ted — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:57:38 +0000

I wrote a post about adding pagination to your BOSS-based site last year on Last-Child.com. Unfortunately, my WordPress installation mangled the php code samples and I didn’t realize how worthless it was until today.

I’ve updated the code samples and provided a text version of the code to download. I’ve used this on several sites and it is very easy to use.

BOSS Hacks - an unofficial Yahoo! BOSS blog » code samples

Build a semantic Search Engine with BOSS

The Search Monkey Query Filter

SearchMonkey in Your BOSS

Sample Result

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Updated BOSS pagination blog post