Computer systems to outline search content and related methods therefor

• US 10,289,740 B2
• Filed: 09/24/2015
• Issued: 05/14/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Searchmetrics GmbH
• Original Assignee: Searchmetrics GmbH
• Inventors: Tober, Marcus, Sommer-Schulz, Stephan, Premont-Schwarz, Isabeau
• Primary Examiner(s): Mackes, Kris E
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bui, Tiffany Thuy
• Application Number:
  US14/864,385
• Publication Number:
  US 20170091331A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,328 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

Some embodiments include a system. The system comprises an input device, an output device, one or more processing modules, and one or more non-transitory memory storage modules storing computer instructions. The non-transitory memory storage module(s) are configured to run on the processing module(s) and perform acts of: receiving a search query; and responsive to receiving the search query: identifying a restricted group of questions, the questions of the restricted group of questions being relevant to the search query; transforming the restricted group of questions into a first group of questions and a second group of questions, the questions of the restricted group of questions comprising the questions of the first group of questions and the questions of the second group of questions; and communicating to a user the first group of questions and the second group of questions. Other embodiments of related systems and methods are also provided.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

an input device;

an output device;

one or more processing modules; and

one or more non-transitory memory storage modules storing computer instructions configured to run on the one or more processing modules and perform acts of;

receiving a search query; and

responsive to receiving the search query;

identifying a restricted group of questions, questions of the restricted group of questions being relevant to the search query;

identifying answers to the questions of the restricted croup of questions;

transforming the restricted group of questions into a first group of questions and a second group of questions, the questions of the restricted group of questions comprising the questions of the first group of questions and the questions of the second group of questions;

grouping together the questions of the first group of questions according to the questions of the first group of questions each satisfying a threshold value of a feature commonality metric relative to each other;

grouping together the questions of the second group of questions according to the questions of the second group of questions each satisfying the threshold value of the feature commonality metric relative to each other;

classifying the first group of questions with a first classification and the second group of questions with a second classification;

communicating to a user the first classification and the second classification;

communicating to the user the answers to the questions of the restricted group of questions; and

omitting an answer to a question of the restricted group of questions from a communication to the user when no answer is identified to the question of the restricted croup of questions,

wherein;

the input device and the output device are configured to permit an operator of the system to manage the one or more processing modules and the one or more non-transitory memory storage modules;

the feature commonality metric is calculated using a divergence score and a convergence score;

the convergence score comprises at least one of;

a quantity of one or more words in common for at least two questions;

a difference in a number of words separating two or more words in common for at least two questions;

a difference in a quantity of words for at least two questions;

an order of words in common for at least two questions;

a grammatical type of one or more words in common for at least two questions;

a word choice of one or more words in common for at least two questions;

a number of characters of one or more words in common for at least two questions;

or

a language of one or more words in common for at least two questions; and

the divergence score comprises at least one of;

a quantity of one or more words in common for at least two questions;

a difference in a number of words separating two or more words in common for at least two questions;

a difference in a quantity of words for at least two questions;

an order of words in common for at least two questions;

a grammatical type of one or more words in common for at least two questions;

a word choice of one or more words in common for at least two questions;

a number of characters of one or more words in common for at least two questions;

or

a language of one or more words in common for at least two questions.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the acts further comprise:

crawling one or more media sources to identify an unrestricted group of questions, questions of the unrestricted group of questions comprising the questions of the restricted group of questions;

indexing the questions of the unrestricted group of questions so that the questions of the unrestricted group of questions are searchable; and

storing the unrestricted group of questions at a question database.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein:

the one or more media sources comprise one or more web pages, the one or more web pages comprise one or more literary works, and the one or more literary works comprise the questions of the unrestricted group of questions.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein the acts further comprise:

ranking the first group of questions and the second group of questions relative to each other; and

communicating to the user the first classification and the second classification comprises displaying to the user the first classification and the second classification in a classification order corresponding to a group order in which the first group of questions and the second group of questions are ranked relative to each other.

5. A method comprising:

executing one or more first computer instructions configured to receive a search query;

and

responsive to executing the one or more first computer instructions;

executing one or more second computer instructions configured to identify a restricted group of questions, questions of the restricted group of questions being relevant to the search query;

executing one or more third computer instructions configured to identify answers to the questions of the restricted group of questions;

executing one or more fourth computer instructions configured to transform the restricted group of questions into a first group of questions and a second group of questions, the questions of the restricted group of questions comprising the questions of the first group of questions and the questions of the second group of questions;

executing one or more fifth computer instructions configured to group together the questions of the first group of questions according to the questions of the first group of questions each satisfying a threshold value of a feature commonality metric relative to each other;

executing one or more sixth computer instructions configured to group together the questions of the second group of questions according to the questions of the second group of questions each satisfying the threshold value of the feature commonality metric relative to each other;

executing one or more seventh computer instructions configured to classify the first group of questions with a first classification and the second group of questions with a second classification;

executing one or more eighth computer instructions configured to communicate to a user the first classification and the second classification;

executing one or more ninth computer instructions configured to communicate to the user the answers to the questions of the restricted group of questions; and

executing one or more tenth computer instructions configured to omit an answer to a question of the restricted group of questions from a communication to the user when no answer is identified to the question of the restricted group of questions,

wherein;

the one or more first computer instructions, the one or more second computer instructions, the one or more third computer instructions, the one or more fourth computer instructions, the one or more fifth computer instructions, the one or more sixth computer instructions, the one or more seventh computer instructions, the one or more eighth computer instructions, the one or more ninth computer instructions, and the one or more tenth computer instructions are configured to run at one or more processing modules and configured to be stored at one or more non-transitory memory storage modules;

the feature commonality metric is calculated using a divergence score and a convergence score;

the convergence score comprises at least one of;

a quantity of one or more words in common for at least two questions;

a difference in a number of words separating two or more words in common for at least two questions;

a difference in a quantity of words for at least two questions;

an order of words in common for at least two questions;

a grammatical type of one or more words in common for at least two questions;

a word choice of one or more words in common for at least two questions;

a number of characters of one or more words in common for at least two questions;

or

a language of one or more words in common for at least two questions; and

the divergence score comprises at least one of;

a quantity of one or more words in common for at least two questions;

a difference in a number of words separating two or more words in common for at least two questions;

a difference in a quantity of words for at least two questions;

an order of words in common for at least two questions;

a grammatical type of one or more words in common for at least two questions;

a word choice of one or more words in common for at least two questions;

a number of characters of one or more words in common for at least two questions;

or

a language of one or more words in common for at least two questions.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein:

executing the one or more fourth computer instructions comprises;

executing one or more eleventh computer instructions configured to group together the questions of the first group of questions according to the questions of the first group of questions each being associated with one or more first keywords; and

executing one or more twelfth computer instructions configured to group together the questions of the second group of questions according to the questions of the second group of questions each being associated with one or more second keywords.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

executing one or more eleventh computer instructions configured to crawl one or more media sources to identify an unrestricted group of questions, questions of the unrestricted group of questions comprising the questions of the restricted group of questions;

executing one or more twelfth computer instructions configured to index the questions of the unrestricted group of questions so that the questions of the unrestricted group of questions are searchable; and

executing one or more thirteenth computer instructions configured to store the unrestricted group of questions at a question database;

wherein;

the one or more eleventh computer instructions, the one or more twelfth computer instructions, and the one or more thirteenth computer instructions are configured to run at the one or more processing modules and configured to be stored at the one or more non-transitory memory storage modules.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein:

the one or more media sources comprise one or more literary works, and the one or more literary works comprise the questions of the unrestricted group of questions.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein:

the one or more media sources comprise one or more web pages, and the one or more web pages comprise the questions of the unrestricted group of questions.

10. The method of claim 5 wherein:

executing the one or more fourth computer instructions comprises;

executing one or more eleventh computer instructions configured to rank the questions of the first group of questions relative to each other; and

executing one or more twelfth computer instructions configured to rank the questions of the second group of questions relative to each other.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein:

executing the one or more eleventh computer instructions comprises;

executing one or more thirteenth computer instructions configured to rank the questions of the first group of questions relative to each other according to a relevance to the search query;

and

executing the one or more twelfth computer instructions comprises;

executing one or more fourteenth computer instructions configured to rank the questions of the second group of questions relative to each other according to the relevance to the search query.

12. The method of claim 5 wherein:

executing the one or more fourth computer instructions comprises;

executing one or more eleventh computer instructions configured to rank the first group of questions and the second group of questions relative to each other.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein:

executing the one or more eleventh computer instructions comprises;

executing one or more twelfth computer instructions configured to rank the first group of questions and the second group of questions according to a quantity of the questions of the first group of questions and a quantity of the questions of the second group of questions.

14. The method of claim 5 wherein:

the first classification comprises at least one of a first name or a first score; and

the second classification comprises at least one of a second name or a second score.

15. The method of claim 5 wherein:

executing the one or more eighth computer instructions comprises;

executing one or more eleventh computer instructions configured to display to the user the first classification and the second classification.

16. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

executing the one or more fourth computer instructions comprises executing one or more twelfth computer instructions configured to transform the answers to the questions of the restricted group of questions into a first group of answers to the questions of the first group of questions and a second group of answers to the questions of the second group of questions, the answers to the questions of the restricted group of questions comprising the answers to the questions of the first group of questions and the answers to the questions of the second group of questions, the first group of questions comprising the first group of answers, and the second group of questions comprising the second group of answers;

wherein;

the one or more twelfth computer instructions are configured to run at the one or more processing modules and configured to be stored at the one or more non-transitory memory storage modules.

17. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

executing one or more eleventh computer instructions configured to communicate to the user at least one of the first group of questions or the second group of questions.

18. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

executing one or more eleventh computer instructions configured to crawl one or more media sources to identify an unrestricted group of questions, the questions of the unrestricted group of questions comprising the questions of the restricted group of questions;

executing one or more twelfth computer instructions configured to index the questions of the unrestricted group of questions so that the questions of the unrestricted group of questions are searchable; and

executing one or more thirteenth computer instructions configured to store the unrestricted group of questions at a question database;

wherein;

executing the one or more fourth computer instructions comprises;

executing one or more fourteenth computer instructions configured to rank the questions of the first group of questions relative to each other;

executing one or more fifteenth computer instructions configured to rank the questions of the second group of questions relative to each other; and

executing one or more sixteenth computer instructions configured to rank the first group of questions and the second group of questions relative to each other;

executing the one or more eighth computer instructions comprises;

executing one or more seventeenth computer instructions configured to display to the user the first classification and the second classification;

the one or more media sources comprise one or more web pages, the one or more web pages comprise one or more literary works, and the one or more literary works comprise the questions of the unrestricted group of questions;

and

the one or more eleventh computer instructions, the one or more twelfth computer instructions and the one or more thirteenth computer instructions are configured to run at the one or more processing modules and configured to be stored at the one or more non-transitory memory storage modules.

19. A method comprising:

executing one or more first computer instructions configured to receive a search query;

and

responsive to executing the one or more first computer instructions;

executing one or more second computer instructions configured to identify a restricted group of text snippets, text snippets of the restricted group of text snippets being relevant to the search query;

executing one or more third computer instructions configured to identify answers to the text snippets of the restricted group of text snippets;

executing one or more fourth computer instructions configured to transform the restricted group of text snippets into a first group of text snippets and a second group of text snippets, the text snippets of the restricted group of text snippets comprising the text snippets of the first group of text snippets and the text snippets of the second group of text snippets;

executing one or more fifth computer instructions configured to group together the text snippets of the first group of text snippets according to the text snippets of the first group of text snippets each satisfying a threshold value of a feature commonality metric relative to each other;

executing one or more sixth computer instructions configured to group together the text snippets of the second group of text snippets according to the text snippets of the second group of text snippets each satisfying the threshold value of the feature commonality metric relative to each other;

executing one or more seventh computer instructions configured to classify the first group of text snippets with a first classification and the second group of text snippets with a second classification;

executing one or more eighth computer instructions configured to communicate to a user the first classification and the second classification;

executing one or more ninth computer instructions configured to communicate to the user the answers to the text snippets of the restricted group of text snippets; and

executing one or more tenth computer instructions configured to omit an answer to a text snippet of the restricted group of text snippets from a communication to the user when no answer is identified to the text snippet of the restricted group of text snippets,

wherein;

the one or more first computer instructions, the one or more second computer instructions, the one or more third computer instructions, the one or more fourth computer instructions, the one or more fifth computer instructions, the one or more sixth computer instructions, the one or more seventh computer instructions, the one or more eighth computer instructions, the one or more ninth computer instructions, and the one or more tenth computer instructions are configured to run at one or more processing modules and configured to be stored at one or more non-transitory memory storage modules;

the feature commonality metric is calculated using a divergence score and a convergence score;

the convergence score comprises at least one of;

a quantity of one or more words in common for at least two text snippets;

a difference in a number of words separating two or more words in common for at least two text snippets;

a difference in a quantity of words for at least two text snippets;

an order of words in common for at least two text snippets;

a grammatical type of one or more words in common for at least two text snippets;

a word choice of one or more words in common for at least two text snippets;

a number of characters of one or more words in common for at least two text snippets;

or

a language of one or more words in common for at least two text snippets; and

the divergence score comprises at least one of;

a quantity of one or more words in common for at least two text snippets;

a difference in a number of words separating two or more words in common for at least two text snippets;

a difference in a quantity of words for at least two text snippets;

an order of words in common for at least two text snippets;

a grammatical type of one or more words in common for at least two text snippets;

a word choice of one or more words in common for at least two text snippets;

a number of characters of one or more words in common for at least two text snippets;

or

a language of one or more words in common for at least two text snippets.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

executing one or more eleventh computer instructions configured to crawl one or more media sources to identify an unrestricted group of text snippets, text snippets of the unrestricted group of text snippets comprising the text snippets of the restricted group of text snippets;

executing one or more twelfth computer instructions configured to index the text snippets of the unrestricted group of text snippets so that the text snippets of the unrestricted group of text snippets are searchable; and

executing one or more thirteenth computer instructions configured to store the unrestricted group of text snippets at a search content database;

wherein;

the one or more media sources comprise one or more web pages, the one or more web pages comprise one or more literary works, and the one or more literary works comprise the text snippets of the unrestricted group of text snippets; and

the one or more eleventh computer instructions, the one or more twelfth computer instructions, and the one or more thirteenth computer instructions are configured to run at the one or more processing modules and configured to be stored at the one or more non-transitory memory storage modules.