Combinatorial query generating system and method

• US 20020103809A1
• Filed: 02/02/2001
• Published: 08/01/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Searchlogic.com Corporation
• Original Assignee: Searchlogic.com Corporation
• Inventors: Starzl, Ravi S., Starzl, Timothy W.
• Application Number:
  US09/776,161
• Publication Number:
  US 20020103809A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/102
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9532 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2216/01 Automatic library building

Abstract

An automated system and method for creating a topical data structure of documents or other items from an inter-linked system of documents, such as the Web and/or the Internet. The data structure can then be searched using conventional means information to generate highly relevant results. The system automatically utilizes pre-existing search resources to discover and collect topically relevant information from the inter-linked system of documents, which can be added to the topical data structure. The topically relevant information collected using the pre-existing search resources can be directly added to the data structure or can be further filtered for relevancy before being added to the data structure.

Claims

1. A method of creating a topical data structure of information located on an inter-linked system of informational documents, the method comprising:

receiving an input query of keywords;

generating a query matrix using the input query wherein the query matrix comprises a set of unique queries having keyterms, wherein the keyterms are related to the keywords supplied with the input query; and

automatically searching a plurality of queriable databases using the query matrix to obtain a result; and

loading the result into a topical data structure.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the act of generating a query matrix comprises:

adding keyterms according to predetermined criteria; and

enumerating possible combinations based on the initial keywords and then added keyterms.

3. A method as defined in claim 2 further comprising:

syntactically varying the keyterms; and

enumerating possible permutations based on the syntactical variations.

4. A method as defined in claim 2 wherein the predetermined criteria relates to thesaurus keyterms.

5. A method as defined in claim 4 wherein act of adding keyterms comprises automatically entering thesaurus keyterms from a lookup table to the query.

6. A method as defined in claim 4 wherein the act of adding keyterms comprises:

providing a list of possible thesaurus keyterms for selection;

selecting at least one keyterm from the provided list; and

adding the selected keyterm to the query.

7. A method as defined in claim 2 wherein the predetermined criteria relates to stemming.

8. A method as defined in claim 2 wherein the predetermined criteria relates to duplication.

9. A method as defined in claim 3 wherein the syntactical variation is based on case sensitivity.

10. A method as defined in claim 3 wherein the syntactical variation employs the use of wildcards.

11. A method as defined in claim 3 wherein the act of enumerating permutations further comprises:

creating a template text document;

assigning each keyword of then input query to an element of the template document; and

performing a search and replace function on the template document with the keyword elements.

12. A method as defined in claim 11 wherein the act of creating a template document further comprises:

counting keyterms in a query set; and

choosing a predefined template based on the number of keyterms.

14. A system as defined in claim 13 wherein the matrix generator comprises:

a keyterm adding module that adds keyterms to the initial query to create a plurality of unique queries; and

a syntactical variance module that modifies keyterms in the plurality of unique queries.

15. A system as defined in claim 14 further comprising:

a restriction module for limiting the number of queries in accordance with predetermined criteria.

16. A system as defined in claim 15 wherein the predetermined criteria relates to ill-formed queries.

17. A system as defined in claim 15 wherein the predetermined criteria relates to restricting queries that contradict explicit uses of operators.

18. A system as defined in claim 15 wherein the predetermined criteria relates to sensitivities of a search engine.

19. A system as defined in claim 14 wherein the initial query comprises keyterms having synonyms and the keyterm adding module automatically adds at least one synonym to the query.

20. A system as defined in claim 14 wherein the keyterm adding module adds keyterms to the query based on stemming.

21. A system as defined in claim 14 wherein the syntactical variation module varies keyterms based on at least one of the following:

case sensitivity, wild cards, keyterm order, Boolean relations, proximity relations, or parenthetical nesting.

13. A discovery and collection system for analyzing documents found on an inter-linked system of documents, the discovery and collection system providing topically related documents to an information retrieval system having a searchable data structure, the searchable data structure providing users document information in response to user supplied queries, said discovery and collection system comprising:

a query interface;

a matrix generator for automatically creating a set of unique query keyterm combinations in response to receiving an initial query from the query interface; and

an autoloader for loading the keyterm combinations into a queriable database, the queriable database returning results to the searchable data structure related to the keyterm combination entered.

22. A computer program product readable by a computer and encoding instructions for executing a computer process for creating a topical data structure, said process comprising:

receiving an input query of keywords;

generating a query matrix using the input query wherein the query matrix comprises a set of unique queries having keyterms, wherein the keyterms are related to the keywords supplied with the input query; and

automatically searching a plurality of queriable databases using the query matrix to obtain a result; and

loading the result into a topical data structure.

23. A computer program product as defined in claim 22 wherein the process act of creating a template document further comprises:

adding keyterms according to predetermined criteria;

enumerating possible combinations based on the initial keywords and then added keyterms;

syntactically varying the keyterms; and

enumerating possible permutations based on the syntactical variations.

24. A computer program product as defined in claim 23 wherein the predetermined criteria relates to thesaurus keyterms.

25. A computer program product as defined in claim 24 wherein act of adding keyterms comprises automatically entering thesaurus keyterms from a lookup table to the query.

26. A computer program product as defined in claim 24 wherein the act of adding keyterms comprises:

providing a list of possible thesaurus keyterms for selection;

selecting at least one keyterm from the provided list; and

adding the selected keyterm to the query.

27. A computer program product as defined in claim 23 wherein the predetermined criteria relates to stemming.

28. A computer program product as defined in claim 23 wherein the predetermined criteria relates to duplication.

29. A computer program product as defined in claim 23 wherein the syntactical variation is based on case sensitivity.

30. A computer program product as defined in claim 23 wherein the syntactical variation employs the use of wildcards.

31. A computer program product as defined in claim 23 wherein the act of enumerating permutations further comprises:

creating a template text document;

assigning each keyword of then input query to an element of the template document; and

performing a search and replace function on the template document with the keyword elements.

32. A computer program product as defined in claim 31 wherein the act of creating a template document further comprises:

counting keyterms in a query set; and

choosing a predefined template based on the number of keyterms.

33. A computer program product as defined in claim 23 wherein the process further comprises:

restricting the query matrix according to predetermined restricting criteria, wherein the predetermined restricting criteria is related to at least one of the following;

ill formed queries, explicit use of operators, or search engine sensitivities.