I'm a searcher with a questions about how stemming works

[katiel]

I do a lot of searches looking for golf tournament sponsorships. We search each version of the word separately, such as

"february 7 2005" golf sponsor
"february 7 2005" golf sponsors
"february 7 2005" golf sponsorship
"february 7 2005" golf sponsorships

If I do the search in the order above I get less and less results per search term.

The google website says it uses stemming, if so, then shouldn't I be getting more and more results because my results for "february 7 2005" golf sponsors should include all the results from "february 7 2005" golf sponsor because the word "sponsor" is included in the word "sponsors" and the same with "sponsorships" and "sponsorship". So is there some way I can get google to use stemming so I can just do one of the above searches and get all the results? Or does stemming only work with certain words (and how can I find out which ones)?

Does anyone reccomend any other search engines for this type of task?

I appreciate your help!

Thanks
Katie Lapi

[Dave Hawley]

Hi Katie "february 7 2005" golf sponsor
"february 7 2005" golf sponsors
"february 7 2005" golf sponsorship
"february 7 2005" golf sponsorships

If I do the search in the order above I get less and less results per search term. The google website says it uses stemming, if so, then shouldn't I be getting more and more results.... I guess that Google is stemming sponsor to sponsors, sponsorship and sponsorships but not stemming sponsorships to sponsors etc

[katiel]

I don't think google is stemming "sponsors" and "sponsorship" to sponsor because I find new tournaments with every search ...

I got this reply from google when I emailed them the same question..but I'm not sure what to make of it...My guess is that it's not stemming any because "sponsorship" is any appendage to sponsor the same way flowerful is to flower.

Thank you for your note. Google does not support conventional wild card
searches; however, we do use stemming technology. When appropriate, Google
will search not only for your search terms, but also for words that are
similar to some or all of those terms. If you search for 'pet lemur
dietary needs,' Google will also search for 'pet lemur diet needs' and
other related variations of your terms. Any variants of these terms will
be highlighted in the snippet of text that accompanies each result.

Google also recognizes the wild card asterisk (*) in phrase searches where
the asterisk is used to represent an entire, unique word. Please keep in
mind that this differs from conventional wild card searches that use the
asterisk to indicate some fraction or extension of a word.

For example, a search for 'flower * pots' on Google will return results
that contain the phrase 'flower filled pots,' 'flower power pots,' etc.
The same query will not, however, find search results that contain the
phrases 'flowering pots' or 'flowerful pots,' because these results are
simply appendages to the word 'flower' and are not whole, separate words.

[NFFC]

Hi katiel,

>stemming

You can alway use this type of search to look at what they are stemming;

http://www.google.com/search?&q=%7Esponsors

[katiel]

Thanks.....What exactly does the ~ do?

forgive my ignorance....is it asking it to stem?

[seobook]

" ~" Searches

You may want to search not only for a particular keyword, but also for its synonyms. Indicate a search for both by placing the tilde sign ("~") immediately in front of the keyword.

For example, to search for food facts as well as nutrition and cooking information, use: ~food ~facts

http://www.google.com/help/refinesearch.html

[orion]

Hi all.

This SEW thread from several months ago may help

KeyWord Stemming & Word Forms (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=258)

Some of the referenced material is more interesting than some of the actual posts, but is a good starting point.


Orion

[Marcia]

This is a very good topic, well worth re-visiting.