Faceted search

In the faceted search and faceted navigation search hits are limited, for example in product or library catalogs based on a faceted classification. The facets use for filtering metadata of the respective entries.

Classification

Using a hierarchical classification search hits can be gradually reduced ( drill-down ), but can then no longer on ( sub) categories of other subtrees are accessed. With a faceted classification, however, previous restrictions can be lifted without giving up later. By filtering through independent categories a Boolean query is incrementally constructed, with each time the entire database is searched.

The facets are obtained either derived from existing metadata or by text analysis (information extraction). The faceted search has also been enhanced to deal with semi-structured data, continuous dimensions and social tagging.

Use

The faceted search is a popular technique in particular electronic commerce, and libraries. A growing number of enterprise search vendors they support.

Science

In science, faceted search has attracted interest mainly in the BID area, partially also in the field of information retrieval. The most important scientific efforts are the following:

• CiteSeerX allows faceted search for scientific publications.
• Apache Solr is a search platform based on Lucene.

E-commerce

Because of the facet-like nature of product data (type, brand, price, etc.) early applications of faceted search were co-developed by the electronic trade. In early 2000 began the retailers to use the faceted search, which led from 2012 onwards to their ubiquity in online shops.

Libraries

The librarian SR Ranganathan was a strong supporter of faceted classification, he failed to replace the Dewey Decimal with his Colon Classification. Nevertheless, OPACs have increasingly introduced faceted search. Well-known examples are the library catalog of the North Carolina State University (part of the Triangle Research Libraries Network) and WorldCat.