Semantic search prototype

Semantic search prototype

project on Emsi Labs

The marketing team at Emsi just launched a new page called Emsi Labs that features the cool stuff being cooked up in our engineering department. I'm excited for a way to get these ideas in front of customers so we can see what sticks, and one of my projects made the cut: Semantic Labor Market Search!

semantic-search-screenshot.png

It's a proof of concept (very much not a finished product, so your mileage may vary) for an idea I had several years ago for a better interface to our data. It's hard enough to understand data once you find what you want, without having to drill down through long options pages and settings to get there. So, with the prototype you can just ask questions — "How much do software developers make in New York?" or "How many graduates from Harvard are female?" — and get answers.

It's amazing how limiting the knowledge domain (e.g. only answer questions about labor market data) makes it far simpler to create interfaces that would be incredibly complex for a broader domain.