Search intent preview, disambiguation, and refinement

• US 10,175,860 B2
• Filed: 06/06/2013
• Issued: 01/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Marantz, Daniel, Yuen, Aaron Chun Win, Prajapati, Guarang P., Govindarajen, Parthasarathy, Wang, Kuansan, Kuo, Yu-Ting, Sacheti, Arun Kumar, Ting, Yin-Cheng
• Primary Examiner(s): Waldron, Scott A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lodhi, Andalib F
• Application Number:
  US13/911,844
• Publication Number:
  US 20140280092A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,042 Days
• Field of Search: 707723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/17 Details of further file system functions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1767 Concurrency control, e.g. optimistic or pessimistic approaches
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90324 using system suggestions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute

Abstract

Systems, methods, computer storage media, and user interfaces are provided for non-committal intent preview, disambiguation, and refinement of a search. A search prefix comprising one or more characters associated with an unexecuted search query is received. One or more intent suggestions are suggested to a user. For each of the one or more intent suggestions, one or more entity identifications associated with each of the one or more intent suggestions are received. Metadata corresponding to at least one entity associated with the one or more entity identifications is retrieved from an entity data store. Without retrieving search results for the unexecuted search query, an aggregated intent preview based on the retrieved metadata corresponding to the at least one entity is provided.

Claims

1. Computer storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform a method of non-committal intent preview, disambiguation, and refinement of a search, the method comprising:

receiving a search prefix from a user, the search prefix comprising one or more characters associated with a search query;

providing one or more intent suggestions to the user based on a comparison of the search prefix to an autosuggest data store;

identifying one or more entity identifications associated with the intent suggestions based on an entity ranking;

providing an aggregated intent preview comprising metadata corresponding to one or more entities associated with at least one of the one or more entity identifications;

receiving a refinement request from the user to refine an intent of the search query without executing a search corresponding to the search query or the refinement request, the refinement request comprising an indication that the user has selected an item of metadata associated with the one or more entities, the item of metadata corresponding to a subentity;

providing a refined intent preview comprising metadata corresponding to the subentity without executing the search; and

upon receiving an indication the user is satisfied the intent of the search query has been identified, executing the search query.

2. The computer storage media of claim 1, further comprising ranking the one or more entities based on entity-intrinsic signals, query-entity interactions by users, and query pattern likelihood scores.

3. The computer storage media of claim 2, wherein the query pattern likelihood scores are based on expected patterns based on entity type, quality standards independent of an individual entity, quality standards independent of associated queries, dominance of one particular entity over another, and non-entity associations of the query.

4. The computer storage media of claim 1, further comprising associating ranked entities with a set of user queries, the set of user queries associated with a single user or multiple users over time.

5. Computer storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to produce a graphical user interface (GUI) for non-committal intent preview, disambiguation, and refinement of a search, the GUI comprising:

a search display area that displays a search bar for receiving, from a user, a search prefix corresponding to a search;

an autosuggest display area that displays, without executing the search, one or more intent suggestions to the user;

an entity display area that displays, without executing the search, an aggregated intent preview comprising metadata associated with at least one entity corresponding to entity identifications associated with the one or more intent suggestions;

a refinement display area that displays, without executing the search corresponding to the search or a refinement request, a refined intent preview comprising metadata associated with a subentity corresponding to an item of metadata selected by the user and associated with the at least one entity; and

an action display area that, upon receiving an indication the user is satisfied the intent of the search query has been identified, enables the user to execute search query.

6. The computer storage media of claim 5, wherein the entity display area is scaled based on relevance signals associated with the at least one entity.

7. The computer storage media of claim 5, further comprising a popular now display area that displays metadata associated with one or more entities corresponding to entity identifications not associated with a search prefix received in the search bar.

8. The computer storage media of claim 5, wherein the metadata provided by the aggregated intent preview is divided into entity or intent disambiguation tiles.

9. The computer storage media of claim 5, further comprising a navigational display area that displays a map and/or directions to an entity provided in the entity display area.

10. The computer storage media of claim 5, further comprising the action display area that displays an action available for the user to take on a particular entity, the action enabling task completion.

11. The computer storage media of claim 5, further comprising an advertisement display area that displays text or display advertisements for a particular entity.

12. The computer storage media of claim 5, further comprising a search history display area that displays a set of queries issued by the user and entities corresponding to the set of queries, the entities enabling the user to interact with a search history.

13. The computer storage media of claim 12, further comprising a social network display area that displays a topic shared by one or more users via a social network, the topic representing a set of queries issued by the one or more users and characterized by metadata associated with the at least one entity.

14. The computer storage media of claim 12, further comprising a multi-user history display area that displays a set of entities corresponding to a set of most popular searched for entities over a predetermined period of time by a population of users.

15. The computer storage media of claim 5, further comprising an annotated query display area that displays an annotated query with a set of previously identified entities for the query.

16. The computer storage media of claim 5, further comprising an annotated entity display area displays an annotated entity with a set of previously identified metadata for the entity.

17. A system for providing non-committal intent preview, disambiguation, and refinement of a search comprising:

one or more processors coupled to a computer storage medium, the computer storage medium having stored thereon a plurality of computer software components executable by the processor, the computer software components comprising;

an autosuggest component that receives a search prefix comprising one or more characters associated with an unexecuted search query and suggests one or more intent suggestions to a user;

an entity identification component that for each of the one or more intent suggestions, receives one or more entity identifications associated with each of the one or more intent suggestions;

a metadata component that retrieves metadata from an entity data store, the metadata corresponding to at least one entity associated with the one or more entity identifications;

a preview component that, without retrieving search results for the unexecuted search query, provides an aggregated intent preview based on the retrieved metadata corresponding to the at least one entity;

a refinement component that, without retrieving search corresponding to the unexecuted search query or a refinement request, provides a refined intent preview that refines the intent of the unexecuted search query and is associated with metadata corresponding to one or more subentities based on a selected item of metadata associated with the one or more entities; and

an action component that, upon receiving an indication the user is satisfied the intent of the search query has been identified, executes the search query.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising a ranking component that ranks the one or more entities based on entity-intrinsic signals, query-entity interactions by users, and query pattern likelihood scores, the query likelihood pattern scores based on expected patterns based on entity type, quality standards independent of an individual entity, quality standards independent of associated queries, dominance of one particular entity over another, and non-entity associations of the query.

19. The system of claim 17, further comprising an action component that enables task completion for a selected entity or subentity.