Data services for enterprises leveraging search system data assets

• US 10,032,131 B2
• Filed: 06/20/2012
• Issued: 07/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Cheng, Tao, Ganjam, Kris, Chakrabarti, Kaushik, Chen, Zhimin, Narasayya, Vivek R., Chaudhuri, Surajit
• Primary Examiner(s): Coulter, Kenneth R
• Application Number:
  US13/527,601
• Publication Number:
  US 20130346464A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,225 Days
• Field of Search: 709201, 709217-219, 707706, 707709, 707710
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A data service system is described herein which processes raw data assets from at least one network-accessible system (such as a search system), to produce processed data assets. Enterprise applications can then leverage the processed data assets to perform various environment-specific tasks. In one implementation, the data service system can generate any of: synonym resources for use by an enterprise application in providing synonyms for specified terms associated with entities; augmentation resources for use by an enterprise application in providing supplemental information for specified seed information; and spelling-correction resources for use by an enterprise application in providing spelling information for specified terms, and so on.

Claims

1. A method performed by a hardware computing device, the method comprising:

receiving system data assets comprising system data asset tables from a network-accessible system, the network-accessible system being configured to provide a service to a population of end-users via a wide area network;

processing the system data asset tables of the system data assets to provide processed data assets comprising augmentation resources; and

providing access to the processed data assets to an enterprise application,

the augmentation resources supplementing an enterprise data table of the enterprise application by providing, from the system data asset tables, an attribute value to the enterprise application that is lacking in the enterprise data table,

wherein the processing the system data asset tables comprises;

identifying, in a column of the enterprise data table, a name for the attribute value that is lacking in the enterprise data table;

identifying another attribute value for another attribute in another column of the enterprise data table;

identifying a matching system data asset table that shares the another attribute and has a corresponding attribute value for the another attribute that agrees with the another attribute value from the enterprise data table; and

obtaining the attribute value that is lacking in the enterprise data table from the matching system data asset table.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

crawling the wide area network to identify the system data asset tables, the system data asset tables being external resources relative to the enterprise application, the enterprise data table being an internal resource of the enterprise application.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the attribute value is obtained from another column of the matching system data asset table that shares the name with the column of the enterprise data table.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the augmentation resources comprise a pre-computed mapping table.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the network-accessible system comprises an Internet search engine and the enterprise application is not associated with the Internet search engine.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the augmentation resources characterize relative similarity of the system data asset tables to the enterprise data table.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the processed data assets comprise intermediate results, and wherein said providing comprises:

performing additional processing based on the processed data assets, in conjunction with input received from the enterprise application, to provide final results; and

providing the final results to the enterprise application.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said providing comprises delivering at least part of the processed data assets to the enterprise application in an offline manner.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said providing comprises providing access to the processed data assets in an online manner in response to a request by the enterprise application to perform at least one function.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said providing comprises providing access to the processed data assets contingent upon existence of a valid subscription which authorizes use of the processed data assets by the enterprise application.

11. A computing system comprising:

a hardware processing device; and

a hardware computer readable storage medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by the hardware processing device, cause the hardware processing device to;

store a native spelling correction dictionary of an enterprise application;

obtain spelling correction resources provided by a data service system, the spelling correction resources reflecting query reformulations submitted by users to a network-accessible system that is separate from the enterprise application, the network-accessible system being configured to provide a service to a population of end-users via a wide area network; and

perform a spelling correction function by the enterprise application, the spelling correction function being performed in first instances using the native spelling correction dictionary of the enterprise application and in second instances using the spelling correction resources provided by the data service system,

wherein the spelling correction function involves, in at least one of the second instances, automatically correcting a misspelled word in the enterprise application by;

identifying an individual query reformulation performed by an individual user of the network-accessible system independently of the enterprise application, the individual query reformulation identifying the misspelled word in a first query that is subsequently corrected to a proper spelling in a second query; and

automatically substituting the proper spelling for the misspelled word in the enterprise application.

12. The computing system of claim 11, wherein the spelling correction resources used to perform the spelling correction function by the enterprise application include manual query reformulations performed by the users when using the network-accessible system independently of the enterprise application.

13. The computing system of claim 11, wherein the network-accessible system comprises a commercial web search engine separate from the enterprise application, and the spelling correction resources used to perform the spelling correction function by the enterprise application include automatic query reformulations performed by the commercial web search engine independently of the enterprise application.

14. The computing system of claim 13, wherein the native spelling correction dictionary uses an edit distance algorithm to perform the spelling correction function.

15. The computing system of claim 14, wherein the enterprise application comprises a text processor.

16. The computing system of claim 11, wherein the network-accessible system is configured to provide an Internet search service.

17. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed by the hardware processing device, cause the hardware processing device to:

identify the individual query reformulation based at least on textual similarity between the first query and the second query.

18. A system comprising:

a hardware processing device; and

a hardware computer readable storage medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by the hardware processing device, cause the hardware processing device to;

receive system data assets from an Internet search engine, the Internet search engine being configured to provide an Internet search service to a population of end-users via the Internet;

obtain a specified term used in executing a consuming enterprise application independently of the Internet search engine;

generate synonym resources based at least on the system data assets received from the Internet search engine, the synonym resources being generated by identifying, from the system data assets, another term that users of the Internet search engine used synonymously with the specified term when interacting with the Internet search engine independently of the consuming enterprise application; and

provide the synonym resources to the consuming enterprise application, the synonym resources enabling the consuming enterprise application to provide individual synonyms for individual terms, the synonym resources indicating that the another term used by the users of the Internet search engine is a synonym of the specified term used in executing the consuming enterprise application,

wherein the consuming enterprise application is not part of the Internet search engine, and

wherein the system data assets reflect instances where users of the Internet search engine used synonyms of the specified terms to query the Internet search engine.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed by the hardware processing device, cause the hardware processing device to:

pre-compute a dictionary of synonymous terms from the system data assets, the synonym resources comprising the pre-computed dictionary.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed by the hardware processing device, cause the hardware processing device to:

use the individual synonyms to search a local database of the consuming enterprise application; and

add other individual synonyms to a table in the local database.