PREDICTING WHETHER STRINGS IDENTIFY A SAME SUBJECT

The present invention is directed to predicting whether two character strings refer to a same subject. An exemplary embodiment includes using a set of character-string pairs, which have been identified as either matches or nonmatches, to learn a function. The function can then be applied to the two character strings to quantify a likelihood that they refer to the same subject matter. For example, a kernel-based classifier analyzes the set of character-string pairs using a kernel function. Based on the analysis the classifier can generate parameters. The parameters are usable to define a prediction algorithm that when applied to the two character strings generates a prediction value, which suggests whether the two characters are matches, i.e., refer to the same subject matter.