Modern search engine result pages often contain a mixture of results from structured and unstructured sources. Where such mixtures of structured and unstructured information are called for, the state-of-the-art is to organize complex search engine result pages around entities. Generating such a mixture of entity-oriented results in response to a traditional keyword query raises a number of interesting retrieval challenges. How do we link queries to entities? How do we identify di erent aspects of entities in cases where we are unsure about the user's intent? How do we associate an entity with a topic that a user appears to be interested in? And how do we explain the relation between entities that are being presented as being similar or related?
In this area, a wide variety of complementary and competing proposed solutions exist. This talk provides a snapshot of current approaches to entity-focused search engine result pages, illustrates key developments using example, and outlines open questions and research opportunities.
The talk is based in part on joint work with Lars Buitinck, David Graus, Xinyi Li, Edgar Meij, Daan Odijk, Ridho Reinanda, Isaac Sijaranamual, Manos Tsagkias, Christophe Van Gysel, Nikos Voskarides, and Wouter Weerkamp.