Laddering Search Service System: “LadaSearch”

It has become common to search necessary services and contents using the Internet, but it is difficult to find exactly what one is looking for through keywords as each service is described in just too many ways. We developed "laddering" search service system that matches the needs of the users with the search targets by communicating with the users through interviews. The system consists chiefly of the laddering dialogue engine employing "laddering method" which enables the engine to ask questions to users and extract keywords and expressions that users probably would not be able to express on their own. This paper describes the outline of laddering search service system and the experimental results of the demonstration system on the Web.