Adaptive query suggestion
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method comprising:
- receiving a user-submitted query originating from a user; and
in response to receiving the user-submitted query, and prior to returning search results associated with the user-submitted query;
identifying a plurality of candidate queries, without further input from the user;
for each candidate query, without further input from the user;
extracting three or more features, each feature reflecting a measurement of effectiveness of the candidate query with respect to the user-submitted query, wherein the three or more features including an estimated normalized discounted cumulative gain, wherein the measurement of effectiveness of the candidate query based, at least in part, on a match feature that reflects how well the candidate query matches search results of the candidate query, a cross match feature that reflects how well the user-submitted query matches search results of the candidate query, and a similarity feature that reflects similarities between search results of the user-submitted query and search results of the candidate query; and
generating a feature vector that includes each of the three or more features as individual components of the feature vector;
rank ordering the candidate queries based at least in part on the feature vectors of the candidate queries; and
suggesting one or more of the top-ranked candidate queries as alternate queries for the user-submitted query.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
When a user-submitted query is received, a set of candidate queries is identified. For each of the candidate queries, features are extracted that, for each candidate query, reflect a measure of effectiveness of the candidate query. The candidate queries are rank ordered based on the measure of effectiveness, and one or more of the top-ranked candidate queries are presented as suggested alternatives to the user-submitted query.
20 Citations
15 Claims
-
1. A method comprising:
-
receiving a user-submitted query originating from a user; and in response to receiving the user-submitted query, and prior to returning search results associated with the user-submitted query; identifying a plurality of candidate queries, without further input from the user;
for each candidate query, without further input from the user;extracting three or more features, each feature reflecting a measurement of effectiveness of the candidate query with respect to the user-submitted query, wherein the three or more features including an estimated normalized discounted cumulative gain, wherein the measurement of effectiveness of the candidate query based, at least in part, on a match feature that reflects how well the candidate query matches search results of the candidate query, a cross match feature that reflects how well the user-submitted query matches search results of the candidate query, and a similarity feature that reflects similarities between search results of the user-submitted query and search results of the candidate query; and generating a feature vector that includes each of the three or more features as individual components of the feature vector; rank ordering the candidate queries based at least in part on the feature vectors of the candidate queries; and suggesting one or more of the top-ranked candidate queries as alternate queries for the user-submitted query. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10)
-
-
9. A method comprising:
- receiving a user-submitted query originating from a user;
determining whether the user-submitted query is a difficult query, wherein a difficult query is a query that will not return relevant or authoritative results;in an event that the user-submitted query is not a difficult query;
sending the user-submitted query to a search engine;
receiving search results associated with the user-submitted query from the search engine; and
presenting the search results associated with the user-submitted query; and
in an event that the user-submitted query is a difficult query;
identifying, without further input from the user, a plurality of candidate queries;
for each candidate query, without further input from the user;
generating a feature vector that includes three or more features, each of the three or more features being individual components of the feature vector, each feature reflecting a measurement of effectiveness of the candidate query with respect to the user-submitted query, the measurement of effectiveness of the candidate query based, at least in part, on search results of the candidate query, the three or more features including an estimated normalized discounted cumulative gain; and
calculating a usefulness probability value based at least in part on the feature vector, wherein the usefulness probability value reflects an estimated quality of the search results for the candidate query with respect to the user-submitted query;
rank ordering the candidate queries based on the usefulness probability values; and
suggesting one or more of the top-ranked candidate queries as alternate queries for the user-submitted query;in the event that the user-submitted query is a difficult query;
receiving a user selection of a particular query selected from the user-submitted query and the alternate queries that are suggested; and
presenting the search results associated with the particular query. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
- receiving a user-submitted query originating from a user;
-
13. A method comprising:
- receiving a user-submitted query originating from a user;
determining whether the user-submitted query is a difficult query, wherein a difficult query is a query that will not return relevant or authoritative results; in an event that the user-submitted query is not a difficult query; determining search results associated with the user-submitted query; and presenting the search results associated with the user-submitted query; and in an event that the user-submitted query is a difficult query; identifying a plurality of candidate queries based on the user-submitted query; for each candidate query of the plurality of candidate queries, determining, without further input from the user, a feature vector having three or more features as individual components of the feature vector, each feature reflecting a measurement of effectiveness of the candidate query with respect to the user-submitted query, the measurement of effectiveness of the candidate query based, at least in part, on search results of the candidate query, the three or more features including an estimated normalized discounted cumulative gain, and any combination of;
one or more match features that reflect how well terms in the candidate query match search results of the candidate query, one or more cross-match features that reflect how well terms in the user-submitted query match search results of the candidate query, and one or more similarity features that reflect a degree of similarity between the search results of the user-submitted query and the search results of the candidate query;rank ordering the plurality of candidate queries based at least in part on the feature vector of the respective candidate queries of the plurality of candidate queries; and suggesting, based on the rank ordering, one or more of the candidate queries as alternate queries for the user-submitted query. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15)
- receiving a user-submitted query originating from a user;
Specification