Suggesting filters for search on online social networks

• US 10,223,464 B2
• Filed: 08/04/2016
• Issued: 03/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Winstanley, Melissa Rose, Rocha, Evan John, Goldblatt, David M., Mehta, Brinda, Francisco, Daniel Cabral, Kalpathy, Krishna Jayaram, Totla, Prerna, Ringger, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Thai, Hanh B
• Application Number:
  US15/228,771
• Publication Number:
  US 20180039647A1
• Time in Patent Office: 943 Days
• Field of Search: 707767
• 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 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a search query from a client system of a first user; parsing the search query into n-grams, and calculating confidence-scores for entities in a set of query-analysis-entities based on the n-grams, each confidence-score representing a probability that one or more of the n-grams are intended to reference a respective entity; determining a set of search results matching the search query, and calculating entity-frequencies corresponding to entities in a set of results-analysis-entities based on a histogram analysis of the set of search results; calculating a filter-score entities in a set of prospective-entities, which includes entities from the set of query-analysis-entities and the set of results-analysis-entities, based on the respective confidence-score and entity-frequency; and sending, to the client system, suggested filters corresponding to entities having a filter-score greater than a threshold filter-score, the suggested filters being selectable to modify the set of search results.

Claims

1. A method comprising, by one or more computing devices:

receiving, from a client system of a first user, a search query inputted by the first user;

executing a query-analysis process, wherein the query-analysis process comprises;

parsing the search query to identify one or more n-grams, and

calculating one or more confidence-scores for one or more entities in a set of query-analysis-entities, respectively, wherein each confidence score is calculated based on an analysis of the identified n-grams, and wherein each confidence-score represents a probability that one or more of the identified n-grams are intended to reference a respective entity;

executing a results-analysis process, wherein the results-analysis process comprises;

determining one or more search results in a set of search results matching the search query, wherein the one or more search results correspond to one or more objects, respectively, and wherein each object is associated with one or more entities in a set of results-analysis-entities, and

calculating one or more entity-frequencies corresponding to one or more entities in the set of results-analysis-entities, respectively, wherein each entity-frequency is calculated based on a histogram analysis of the set of search results, wherein each entity-frequency corresponds to a number of occurrences of a respective entity associated with the search results;

calculating a filter-score for each entity in a set of prospective-entities, wherein the set of prospective-entities comprises one or more entities from the set of query-analysis-entities and the set of results-analysis-entities, and wherein the filter-score is calculated based on a respective confidence-score for the entity and a respective entity-frequency of the entity; and

sending, to the client system of the first user, one or more suggested filters corresponding to entities having a filter-score greater than a threshold filter-score, wherein each suggested filter is selectable by the first user to modify the set of search results based on the entity corresponding to the suggested filter.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more entities in the set of prospective-entities have a confidence-score greater than a threshold confidence-score and an entity-frequency greater than a threshold entity-frequency.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of the nodes representing a single degree of separation between them, the nodes comprising;

a first node representing the first user, the first user being associated with an online social network, and

a plurality of second nodes representing a plurality of entities, respectively, wherein each entity corresponds to a concept or a second user associated with the online social network.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the confidence-score for each entity is further based on a degree of separation between the first node and a second node representing the entity.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the confidence-score for each entity is further based on a number of entity-matches associated with the entity, wherein the number of entity-matches is determined, at least in part, by:

associating one or more identified n-grams with the entity based on the identified n-gram matching a keyword associated with the entity; and

determining a total number of the one or more identified n-grams that are associated with the entity.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the confidence-score for each entity is further based on an affinity between the first user and the entity.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the confidence-score for each entity is further based on context information associated with the entity and a current context.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the confidence-score for each entity is further based on a location associated with the client system of first user and a location associated with the entity.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the results-analysis process further comprises:

generating a histogram comprising a count of occurrences of one or more attributes of the objects corresponding to the search results in the set of search results;

determining a relationship between the one or more attributes and the one or more entities in the set of results-analysis-entities; and

calculating, for each entity in the set of results-analysis-entities, a count of occurrences of the entity based on the respective count of one or more of the attributes that are determined to be related to the entity.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an input from the user selecting one or more of the suggested filters; and

implementing the selected one or more filters by modifying the set of search results, wherein the modifying comprises removing all search results that do not match the entities corresponding to the respective selected filters.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an input from the user selecting one or more of the suggested filters; and

implementing the selected one or more filters by modifying the set of search results, wherein the modifying comprises removing all search results that match the entities corresponding to the respective selected filters.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically implementing one or more of the suggested filters without additional input from the first user.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more of the suggested filters that are automatically implemented are suggested filters corresponding to entities having a filter-score greater than a upper-threshold filter-score.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more of the suggested filters are automatically implemented when there is greater than a threshold number of search results matching the search query.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

executing a privacy-check process on one or more potential filters corresponding to entities having a filter-score greater than a threshold filter-score, wherein the privacy-check process determines, for each of the potential filters, whether sending the respective potential filters would disclose information not visible to the first user based on privacy settings associated with the respective entity; and

determining, from the one or more potential filters, the one or more suggested filters based on the privacy-check process.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the privacy-check process further comprises, for each potential filter, determining whether the potential filter is directed to a search result corresponding to an object that is not visible to the first user based on privacy settings associated with the object.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the privacy-check process further comprises, for each filter, determining whether the potential filter corresponds to an entity that is associated with the set of search results based on information that is not visible to the first user based on privacy settings associated with the object.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of query-analysis-entities is the same as the set of results-analysis-entities.

19. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:

receive, from a client system of a first user, a search query inputted by the first user;

execute a query-analysis process, wherein the query-analysis process comprises;

parsing the search query to identify one or more n-grams, and

calculating one or more confidence-scores for one or more entities in a set of query-analysis-entities based on an analysis of the identified n-grams, wherein each confidence-score represents a probability that one or more of the identified n-grams are intended to reference a respective entity;

execute a results-analysis process, wherein the results-analysis process comprises;

determining a set of search results matching the search query, and

calculating one or more entity-frequencies corresponding to one or more entities in a set of results-analysis-entities based on a histogram analysis of the set of search results, wherein each entity-frequency corresponds to a number of occurrences of a respective entity associated with the search results;

calculate a filter-score for each entity in the set of query-analysis-entities and the set of results-analysis-entities based on its respective confidence-score and its respective entity-frequency; and

send, to the client system of the first user, one or more suggested filters corresponding to entities having a filter-score greater than a threshold filter-score, wherein each suggested filter is selectable by the first user to modify the set of search result based on the entity corresponding to the suggested filter.

20. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors operable when executing the instructions to;

receive, from a client system of a first user, a search query inputted by the first user;

execute a query-analysis process, wherein the query-analysis process comprises;

parsing the search query to identify one or more n-grams, and

calculating one or more confidence-scores for one or more entities in a set of query-analysis-entities based on an analysis of the identified n-grams, wherein each confidence-score represents a probability that one or more of the identified n-grams are intended to reference a respective entity;

execute a results-analysis process, wherein the results-analysis process comprises;

determining a set of search results matching the search query, and

calculating one or more entity-frequencies corresponding to one or more entities in a set of results-analysis-entities based on a histogram analysis of the set of search results, wherein each entity-frequency corresponds to a number of occurrences of a respective entity associated with the search results;

calculate a filter-score for each entity in the set of query-analysis-entities and the set of results-analysis-entities based on its respective confidence-score and its respective entity-frequency; and

send, to the client system of the first user, one or more suggested filters corresponding to entities having a filter-score greater than a threshold filter-score, wherein each suggested filter is selectable by the first user to modify the set of search result based on the entity corresponding to the suggested filter.