A Semantic Web-based Approach for Context-Aware User Query formulation and Information Retrieval

Formulating unambiguous queries in the Semantic Web applications is a challenging task for users. This article presents a new approach in guiding users to formulate clear requests based on their common nature of querying for information. The approach known as the front-end ap proach gives users an overview about the system data through a vir tual data component which stores the extracted metadata of the data storage sources in the form of an ontology. This approach reduces the ambiguities in users’ requests at a very early stage and allows the query process to effectively perform in fulfilling users’ demands in a context-aware manner. Furthermore, the approach provides a powerful query engine, called context-aware query ing, that recommends the appropriate query patterns according to the user’s querying context.