Weakly-supervised discovery of named entities using web search queries

A seed-based framework for textual information extraction allows for weakly supervised extraction of named entities from anonymized Web search queries. The extraction is guided by a small set of seed named entities, without any need for handcrafted extraction patterns or domain-specific knowledge, allowing for the acquisition of named entities pertaining to various classes of interest to Web search users. Inherently noisy search queries are shown to be a highly valuable, albeit little explored, resource for Web-based named entity discovery.