Wal-Mart uses Semantic Search

It is likely we will continue to see more efforts like this in retail, the claim for immediate improvement is particularly interesting:  " ... Walmart like many online businesses sees the search engine as a key element in boosting online sales. Online marketplace eBay for example said in November it is updating to a search engine, code-named Cassini, which will replace the Voyager technology that has been used since the early 2000s.  Built in 10 months by a small team @WalmartLabs, the research and technology hub at the retailer, the new search engine called Polaris is based on the lab's Social Genome project, which uses public data on the Web, proprietary data, and social media, to identify interesting entities and relationships, and add them to the Social Genome.... " 

And more on this topic.