Analyzing Mothers’ Information Needs and Knowledge Gaps Based on Q&A and Search Behavior in a Mother-Focused Social Networking Service

Abstract

This study aims to identify knowledge gaps in parenting information by analyzing questions, answers, and search histories collected from a mother-focused social networking service (SNS). First, question texts in the Q&A data are vectorized and clustered based on semantic similarity. Then, we quantify and visualize the answer rate and user search frequency within each cluster to detect “unanswered areas” ―topics that are frequently asked or searched but remain insufficiently addressed. This approach offers a structural understanding of mothers’ real information needs and has the potential to reveal blind spots in public information provision by administrative and medical institutions.