1. A computer-readable memory device storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a computing device to perform a method of predicting whether character strings refer to a same subject matter, the method comprising: identifying in a database a first character string and a second character string that are included in a set of text documents; utilizing the computing device to generate a prediction value, which quantifies likelihood that the first character string and the second character string refer to the same subject matter, by applying a prediction algorithm to each of the first character string and the second character string, (1) wherein the prediction algorithm is determined based on an analysis of a training set of data, which includes a plurality of character strings that are included in the set of text documents and that are combinable into character-string pairs, (2) wherein the analysis of the training set of data includes generating from a mapping of the character-string pairs parameters that are usable to define the prediction algorithm, and (3) wherein the mapping is based on a first kernel function comprising a mathematical combination of a square root of a first IDF of a character string included in the first character string, a square root of a second IDF of a character string included in the second character string, and a value quantifying a measure of similarity; and based on the prediction value, associating in the database the first character string with the second character string.
10. The computer-readable memory device of claim 1 , wherein an inner product is usable to generate both the parameters and corresponding support vectors, and wherein the parameters and corresponding support vectors are usable to define the prediction algorithm.