Boosted slashtags

• US 10,223,456 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2013
• Issued: 03/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Annau, Thomas M., Lindahl, Gregory B., Makonnen, Samuel, Markson, Michael, Peters, Keith, Saliba, Robert Michael, Sary, Al, Skrenta, Rich, Swartz, Dan, Truel, Robert N., Walters, Timothy
• Primary Examiner(s): Gorney, Boris
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kim, Christy Y
• Application Number:
  US13/873,415
• Publication Number:
  US 20140149373A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,135 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24534 Query rewriting; Transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2455 Query execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24568 Data stream processing; Continuous queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3338 Query expansion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90328 using search space presentation or visualization, e.g. category or range presentation and selection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9536 Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs

Abstract

A search engine system, including a slashtag server configured to detect at least one search operator in a search query and detect a boosting indicator associated with the at least one search operator. Additionally, a web server configured to, in response to the detected boosting indicator, and generate a first search result that includes a boosted ranking of at least a subset a plurality of search result items in the search result and display the first search result in a web browser.

Claims

1. A search engine system, comprising:

a server having a hardware processor and memory storing instructions configured to cause the server to;

receive a user-input search query including;

one or more key words,

a user-input slashtag including a term wrapped in a predetermined syntax, and

a user-input boosting indicator including a user-input character prepended to the predetermined syntax of the user-input slashtag within the user-input search query;

detect within the user-input search query the user-input slashtag and the user-input boosting indicator associated with the user-input slashtag, where the user-input slashtag refers to a predetermined collection of websites;

in response to detecting the user-input boosting indicator;

generate a first search result that includes a boosted ranking of at least a subset of a plurality of search result items in the first search result associated with the user-input slashtag; and

display the first search result in a web browser.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first search result is generated by:

performing a search for the one or more key words to obtain search results, the search results including the search result items;

determining a subset of the search result items that are present in the user-input slashtag;

identifying a rank associated with each item of the subset of the search result items;

adjusting the rank associated with each item of the subset of the search result to create a plurality of boosted ranks; and

adjusting an order of the first search result to create a boosted order, utilizing the plurality of boosted ranks.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the rank is adjusted by multiplying the rank by a predetermined factor to create the plurality of boosted ranks.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the rank is adjusted by adding a constant to the rank to create the plurality of boosted ranks.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the user-input slashtag contains a list of previous URLs clicked on by the user, and the user-input slashtag is encrypted using a key provided by the user and is decrypted each time the user-input slashtag is used.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein generating the first search result includes:

performing a search for the one or more key words to obtain search results, the search results including a plurality of websites;

determining a subset of the search results, where the subset includes all websites of the plurality of websites that are located within the predetermined collection of websites referred to by the user-input slashtag;

identifying a rank associated with each website of the subset of the search results;

increasing the rank associated with each website of the subset of the search results by a predetermined factor to create a boosted rank for each website of the subset of the search results;

determining an order of the plurality of websites of the search results, utilizing a rank associated with each of the plurality of websites of the search results, and the boosted rank for each website of the subset of the search results; and

displaying the plurality of websites of the search results in the determined order as the first search result.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the user-input slashtag is encrypted using a key provided by the user and is decrypted each time the user logs in to the search engine system, where a content of the user-input slashtag is discarded after the user has been idle for a predetermined amount of time.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein generating the first search result includes:

performing a search for the one or more key words to obtain search results, the search results including a plurality of websites;

determining a subset of the search results, where the subset includes all websites of the plurality of websites that are located within the predetermined collection of websites referred to by the user-input slashtag, the predetermined collection of websites including all URLs previously selected by the user and one or more additional users associated with the user from one or more search engine results pages;

identifying a rank associated with each website of the subset of the search results;

increasing the rank associated with each website of the subset of the search results by a predetermined factor to create a boosted rank for each website of the subset of the search results;

determining an order of the plurality of websites of the search results, utilizing a rank associated with each of the plurality of websites of the search results, and the boosted rank for each website of the subset of the search results; and

displaying the plurality of websites of the search results in the determined order as the first search result.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further configured to:

generate a second search result, the second search result being generated without the boosted criteria; and

provide a link to select the second search result,

wherein the first search result and the second search result are displayed next to each other on the same web page;

wherein each result item of the first search result or second search result comprises a two-line format, wherein the first line is dedicated to a page URL title that hyperlinks to the respective page URL; and

the second line is dedicated to at least a subset of a group consisting of a website title, one or more content tags, one or more site tags, and an optional snippet;

wherein the one or more site tags include, displayed at a web browser, at least a subset of a group consisting of;

links, seo, rss, cache, source, ip, rank, hostrank, and adsense;

wherein the one or more site tags further include a social network indicator to enable a user to indicate a preference of the respective search result item.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein generating the first search result includes:

performing a search for the one or more key words to obtain search results, the search results including a plurality of websites;

determining a subset of the search results, where the subset includes all websites of the plurality of websites that are located within the predetermined collection of websites referred to by the user-input slashtag, the predetermined collection of websites including all URLs previously selected by the user from one or more search engine results pages;

identifying a rank associated with each website of the subset of the search results;

increasing the rank associated with each website of the subset of the search results by a predetermined factor to create a boosted rank for each website of the subset of the search results;

determining an order of the plurality of websites of the search results, utilizing a rank associated with each of the plurality of websites of the search results, and the boosted rank for each website of the subset of the search results; and

displaying the plurality of websites of the search results in the determined order as the first search result.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a first hardware storage and a second hardware storage, each configured to interface with the server, wherein the first storage is configured to store search engine index data, and wherein the second storage is configured to store a subset of search engine index data determined to be more important.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further configured to:

obtain a first list of search engine result pages (SERPs), each SERP including a uniform resource locator (URL) and having an associated weight, utilizing at least a portion of the user-input search query, where the first list is organized in a first order;

boost a ranking of at least a portion of the first list of SERPs by;

identifying one or more SERPs in the first list that have an associated URL matching a URL in the user-input slashtag, and

increasing the associated weight of the one or more SERPs located in the user-input slashtag; and

determine a second list of SERPs organized in a second order different from the first order, utilizing the increased associated weight of the one or more SERPs located in the user-input slashtag.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the server is further configured to:

receive a request to display only the SERPs having a boosted ranking; and

display to the user only the SERPs in the first list that are identified having an associated URL matching a URL in the user-input slashtag.