Contextual search

• US 20030220917A1
• Filed: 03/05/2003
• Published: 11/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Consona CRM Incorporated (Aptean Superior Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Consona CRM Incorporated (Aptean Superior Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mahendra, Samir, Copperman, Max, Huffman, Scott B.
• Application Number:
  US10/382,104
• Publication Number:
  US 20030220917A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence

Abstract

A customer relationship management (CRM) or other content provider system and method use a set of predetermined terms organized into predetermined groups. A set of search queries is generated using search templates, ordered generally from approximately more specific to approximately more general, including combinations of such groups. A user-provider session generates session context using, among other things, user query language, user response language, a user selection, or a user attribute. Each search template specifies which ones of the groups require at least one corresponding term in the session context to be present in a document for that document to satisfy a search query generated from that search template. In one example, some groups may include words or terms other than the predetermined terms. Such other words or terms may be defined by other characteristics, such as by their frequency of occurrence in the content. In further examples, the search templates require not only the presence of terms from various combinations of groups, but also specify order, proximity, and/or other relational requirements between two or more groups.

Claims

1. A content provider system, including:

a set of groups of term types;

a predetermined set of terms, organized into the groups;

a user interface, configured to interact with a user during a user-provider session that generates session context in which terms from the predetermined set of terms are recognized; and

a set of search templates, ordered generally from approximately more specific toward approximately more general, each search template specifying a combination of one or more of the groups;

a search generator, configured to use the session context for generating a search query from a corresponding search template, the search generator coupled to the user interface to present at least one of the search queries to the user; and

a retrieval engine, coupled to the search generator for receiving one or more search queries and retrieving documents satisfying the one or more search queries.

2. The system of claim 1, in which the search generator generates the search query from the corresponding search template by incorporating into the search query, for each group in the corresponding search template, language from the session context that must be present in a document in order for that document to satisfy the search query.

3. The system of claim 2, in which the retrieval engine is coupled to the user interface, the retrieval engine configured to receive one or more of the search queries from the search generator and to indicate to the user interface how many documents correspond to each of the one or more search queries.

4. The system of claim 3, in which the retrieval engine is configured to present to the user one or more of the search queries and the indication of how many documents correspond to each of the one or more search queries for the user to select a particular one of the search queries to initiate at least one of a broadening search and an alternative search.

5. The system of claim 1, in which at least one of the terms includes a set of a word and at least one synonym of the word.

6. The system of claim 1, in which the groups include at least one of an Activities group, an Objects group, a Symptoms group, and a Products group.

7. The system of claim 1, further including unrecognized word classification groups to permit classification of one or more unrecognized words in the session context as a member of one or more of the classification groups.

8. The system of claim 7, in which the classification uses a frequency with which the unrecognized word occurs in the documents accessed by the content provider system.

9. The system of claim 1, in which the session context is based on at least one of user query language, user response language, a user selection, and a user attribute.

10. The system of claim 1, further including at least one of a dialog engine and an autocontextualization engine, the at least one of the dialog engine and the autocontextualization engine configured to generate the session context.

11. The system of claim 1, in which at least one of the search templates also specifies at least one relation between groups associated with the at least one of the search templates.

12. The system of claim 11, in which the at least one relation specifies an order between at least two of the groups specified by the search template, such that a resulting search query requires that language from the session context appear in the document in the specified order to satisfy the search query.

13. The system of claim 11, in which the at least one relation specifies a proximity between at least two of the groups specified by the search template, such that a resulting search query requires that language from the session context appear in the document in the specified proximity to satisfy that search query.

14. The system of claim 11, in which the at least one relation specifies a linguistic relation between at least two of the groups specified by the search template, such that a resulting search query requires that language from the session context appear in the document in the specified linguistic relation to satisfy that search query.

15. The system of claim 1, in which the search template specifies a frequency with which language from the session context must be present in the document to satisfy a resulting search query generated from that search template.

16. The system of claim 1, in which the user interface includes a display configured to present at least one of the search queries to the user to trigger at least one of a broadening search and an alternative search.

17. The system of claim 1, in which the user interface includes a display configured to present at least one of the search queries to the user to trigger a narrowing search.

18. The system of claim 1, in which the user interface includes a display configured to display to the user search queries ordered using the ordering of the search templates.

19. The system of claim 1, in which the user interface includes a display capable of being formatted at least in part using which one or more groups language in the session context belongs to.

20. The system of claim 1, in which the user interface includes a display capable of being formatted at least in part using which one or more groups one or more terms present in user query language belong to.

21. The system of claim 1, in which the user interface includes a display capable of being formatted at least in part using whether only one term is present in user query language and whether that term is an Activity, Object, Product, or Symptom.

22. The system of claim 1, in which the user interface includes a display capable of being formatted at least in part using an ordering in user query language of groups that correspond to terms that are present in the user query language.

23. The system of claim 1, in which the user interface includes a display capable of being formatted at least in part using a proximity in user query language of groups that correspond to terms that are present in the user query language.

24. The system of claim 1, in which the user interface includes a display configured to present search queries to the user after filtering out search queries that yield no corresponding documents and after ranking the search queries using the ordering of the search templates from which the search queries are generated.

25. A computer-assisted method of guiding a user toward needed content, the method including:

engaging a user in a user-provider session that generates session context;

recognizing whether one or more predetermined terms are present in the session context; and

formulating a set of search queries, ordered generally from approximately more specific toward approximately more general, using a set of search templates that are ordered generally from approximately more specific toward approximately more general.

26. The method of claim 25, in which each search template specifies a combination of one or more groups selected from a plurality of predetermined groups, and in which the one or more predetermined terms that are present in the session context include a type that determines whether it is a member of one of the predetermined groups, and in which the formulating the set of search queries includes, for a particular search query, matching session context to a combination of one or more groups specified by a corresponding search query template, such that the matched session context must be present in a document in order for that document to satisfy the search query.

27. The method of claim 26, further including:

presenting search queries to the user; and

indicating to the user how many documents correspond to each of the search queries presented to the user.

28. The method of claim 27, in which the presenting search queries to the user includes presenting a choice between different search queries to the user as part of an alternative search or a broadening search.

29. The method of claim 26, in which at least one group corresponds to words that occur in the content with a specified frequency.

30. The method of claim 26, further including classifying an unrecognized word in the session context into one of the groups using a frequency with which the unrecognized word occurs in the content.

31. The method of claim 26, in which each at least one of the search templates also specifies at least one relation between groups associated with the at least one of the search templates.

32. The method of claim 31, in which the at least one relation specifies an order between at least two of the groups specified by the search template, such that a resulting search query requires that language from the session context appear in the document in the specified order to satisfy that search query.

33. The method of claim 31, in which the at least one relation specifies a proximity between at least two of the groups specified by the search template, such that a resulting search query requires that language from the session context appear in the document in the specified proximity to satisfy that search query.

34. The method of claim 31, in which the at least one relation specifies a linguistic relation between at least two of the groups specified by the search template, such that a resulting search query requires that language from the session context appear in the document in the specified linguistic relation to satisfy that search query.

35. The method of claim 25, further including displaying to the user search queries ordered using the ordering of the search templates.

36. The method of claim 25, further including formatting a display at least in part using which one or more groups language in the session context belongs to.

37. The method of claim 25, further including formatting a display at least in part using whether only one term is present in user query language and whether that term is an Activity, Object, Product, or Symptom.

38. The method of claim 25, further including formatting a display at least in part using an ordering in user query language of groups that correspond to terms that are present in the user query language.

39. The method of claim 25, further including formatting a display at least in part using a proximity in user query language of groups that correspond to terms that are present in the user query language.

40. The method of claim 25, further including displaying search queries to the user after filtering out search queries that yield no corresponding documents and after ranking the search queries using the ordering of the search templates from which the search queries are generated.

41. The method of claim 25, further including retrieving one or more documents satisfying at least one of the search queries.

42. The method of claim 25, in which the groups include at least one of an Activities group, an Objects group, a Symptoms group, and a Products group.

43. The method of claim 25, in which the engaging the user in a user-provider session that generates session context includes obtaining session context from at least one of user query language, user response language, a user selection, and a user attribute.

44. The method of claim 25, in which at least one of the terms includes a set of a word and at least one synonym of the word.

45. The method of claim 25, further including obtaining the session context using at least one of user query language, user response language, a user selection, and a user attribute.

46. A computer readable medium including instructions for performing the method of claim 25.