Methods and apparatus for employing usage statistics in document retrieval

• US 20020123988A1
• Filed: 03/02/2001
• Published: 09/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Dean, Jeffrey A., Harik, Georges, Bharat, Krishna, Henzinger, Monika H., Gomes, Benedict
• Granted Patent: US 8,001,118 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

Methods and apparatus consistent with the invention provide improved organization of documents responsive to a search query. In one embodiment, a search query is received and a list of responsive documents is identified. The responsive documents are organized based in whole or in part on usage statistics.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of organizing a collection of documents by employing usage information, comprising:

receiving a search query;

identifying a plurality of documents responsive to the search query;

assigning a score to each document based on at least the usage information; and

organizing the documents based on the assigned scores.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the documents are hyperlinked pages from the world wide web.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the usage information for a document comprises the number of users who have visited the document.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the usage information for a document comprises the change, over a period of time, in the number of users who have visited the document.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the usage information for a document excludes certain predefined users.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the usage information for a document is weighted based on the nature of user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the usage information for a document comprises the frequency with which the document has been visited.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the usage information for a document comprises the change, over a period of time, in the frequency with which the document has been visited.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the usage information for a document excludes certain predefined visits.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the usage information for a document is weighted based on the nature of the visit.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the usage information for a document comprises a combination of unique visitors to the document and a frequency with which the document has been visited.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the usage information is stored at a server that provides access to the documents.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the usage information is stored at a client that accesses the documents.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the score assigned to a document is relative to the score assigned to other documents.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the score assigned to a document is an absolute score.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the usage information for a document comprises the number of unique visitors to the document.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the usage information for a document comprises the frequency with which the document has been visited.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the documents are organized based on the usage information alone.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising organizing the documents based on the usage information and the search query.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the documents contain link information.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising organizing the documents based on the usage information and the link information.

23. The method of claim 16, further comprising organizing the documents based on the usage statistics, the search query, and the link information.

24. The method of claim 16, wherein the usage information for a document is based on the usage information for the site to which the document belongs.

16. A computer implemented method of organizing a collection of documents by employing usage information, comprising:

receiving a search query;

identifying a plurality of documents responsive to the search query; and

organizing the documents based on at least the usage information.

25. A computer-readable medium containing one or more instructions for organizing a collection of documents, the instructions comprising:

receiving a search query;

identifying a plurality of documents responsive to the search query;

assigning a score to each document based on the usage information; and

organizing the documents based on the assigned scores.

26. An apparatus for organizing a collection of documents, comprising:

at least one memory having program instructions, and

at least one processor configured to execute the program instructions to perform the operations of;

receiving a search query;

identifying a plurality of documents responsive to the search query;

assigning a score to each document based on the usage information; and

organizing the documents based on the assigned scores.

27. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of records, each of the records comprising:

a) a first field containing a document identifier; and

b) a second field containing a value corresponding to the importance of the document, the value being a function of both usage data for the document and link information for the document.