Search engine facility with automated knowledge retrieval generation and maintenance

• US 20040139106A1
• Filed: 12/31/2002
• Published: 07/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Mazina, Dorothy Irene, Hoffman, Richard Dale, Bachman, Robert Edward, McDavid, Douglas Warren, Johnson, Verlyn Mark
• Granted Patent: US 7,216,121 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/104.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9532 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A system for generating and retrieving relevant electronic information required by a user initiating an electronic search on the system. The system comprise a user-interactive search engine and a knowledge database, which stores knowledge information that is formatted. Additionally, the system includes a plurality of functional software modules that enables a user to complete an interactive search and find a solution to a task based on entered context information and keywords. A list of keywords are displayed to the user and the user selects those keywords that are relevant to the solution desired. The search engine looks for the articles containing the identified keywords. If no article is found with the search terms, the search is expanded to the Internet. The user may then modify the information returned from the Internet, format the information and save the information as a new recipe.

Claims

1. A system for generating and retrieving relevant electronic information required by a user initiating an electronic search, said system comprising:

a user-interactive search engine, which supports entry of context information in the form of goals and objectives that are desired to be resolved by the user;

a first electronic database directly accessible via said search engine and which stores knowledge information that is maintained in a specific format;

a plurality of functional software modules that enables a building of a process that is a solution to a goal and an objective entered by a user for resolution, wherein said building of a process involves retrieval of information from an external source, modification of said information, formatting of said information according to the specific format of knowledge information stored within the first electronic database, and forwarding of said formatted information for storage within said first electronic database;

a tagging module that links to the formatted information a selection of keywords and tags identified by said goal and objective;

a feedback administrator that analyzes said formatted information for compliance with said format and for usefulness to other users and approves said formatted information for inclusion within said first electronic database.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

means for connecting said system to a second electronic database that is external to said system and which includes un-formatted information;

means for retrieving relevant ones of said un-formatted information from said second electronic database when said first electronic database does not contain sufficient relevant information to resolve the user-entered goal and objective, wherein said unformatted information is passed to said plurality of functional software modules to generate a solution to said goal and objective.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

output means providing an interface to the user for receiving user requests and interactions and providing said user with a result of said solution; and

user-side input means for receiving user entered inputs including user requests, user response to prompts from said system, and other user interactions with said system; and

system-side input means for receiving updates and other inputs from system administrators.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a database of user profiles that assigns and tracks a login identifier (ID) of the user who provides said formatted information; and

a rewarder module that initiates a provision of an incentive to said user in response to said user providing said formatted information that is included within said first electronic database.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising:

an automated maintenance facility that tracks use of said formatted information over a time period and which deletes said formatted information from said first electronic database when said formatted information is determined to not be useful to users of said system; and

wherein said rewarder module further includes;

means for tracking a use of said formatted information provided by said user; and

means for providing an additional award when said use reaches a predetermined threshold.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a server on which said search engine is executed;

a client system with access to said server and which enables said user-side input means; and

wherein, responsive to said client system accessing said server, said output means displays a sequence of user interfaces with which said user interacts with said system.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising:

means for outputting a collection of said information retrieved from said first electronic database and said second electronic database as a result set;

means for enabling said user to modify said result set; and

means for enabling said user to save said result within said first electronic database with an associated name; and

means for enabling later access to said saved result set by said user.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said plurality of functional software modules includes a process builder that scans sources external to said system for process definitions that match user-entered criteria and imports relevant process definitions from the external sources.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein said plurality of functional software modules includes:

a knowledge capturer that collects technical support knowledge and tags said technical support knowledge according to a pre-established classification system; and

a knowledge-to-process linker that connects technical support knowledge components to process statements to provide knowledge in the context of the user-entered process being performed by a user.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein said plurality of functional software modules further comprise:

software means for parsing said context information to find keys;

software means for associating said keys to keywords that are linked to specific data within said electronic database;

software means for outputting said keywords to said user for user selection of specific ones of said keywords; and

software means, that responsive to said user selection of said specific keywords, retrieves data that are linked to the specific keywords selected and outputting said data to said user.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein said plurality of functional software modules includes:

software means for assigning a weighted value to each of said keywords, said weighted value indicating a priority of said particular keyword within search parameters identified by said context, wherein data with a higher priority value is desired above data with a lower priority value, said software means including means for enabling said user to change the priority value assigned to each of said keywords prior to conduction said search; and

software means for returning data linked to said keywords in an order reflective of the priority value assigned to a respective keyword.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein said data stored within said electronic database is a recipe, said functional software modules comprising:

software means for generating a recipe from a series of user interactions with said search engine, wherein said recipe provides a sequence of steps to solve a particular objective within a stated goal;

software means for prompting said user to enter said search request as a goal;

software means for subsequently requesting additional user interaction to define said goal and generate said recipe;

software means for storing said recipe within said electronic database tagged with said keywords; and

software means for providing said recipe in response to a later received search request within said context.

13. A method for providing structured search results via an electronic search facility, said method comprising:

receiving a search query from a user including a context within which said query is to be searched;

identifying key terms within said context information by parsing said context information;

identifying keywords linked to specific articles that are associated with said key terms;

returning said specific articles to said user as a result set generated by said search; and

providing said results in a structured format designed to provide said user with more relevant information retrieved from said search based on said context.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein:

said identifying step comprises;

outputting said keywords to said user;

enabling said user to select specific ones of said keywords that said user thinks is associated with said context; and

said returning step includes returning only those articles linked to said user selected keywords within said result set.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

first searching a local database for a match of said query within said context;

outputting a result set of said initial search on said local database when said initial search generated more than a threshold number of results;

when said local database does not contain sufficient results of said query within said context, completing said search on a larger database accessible via a network to which said data processing system has access, wherein said step of completing said search on said larger database is automatically initiated when said result set does not include at least said threshold number of results; and

subsequently outputting a next result set including results from said local database and results from said larger database.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

enabling user modification to said result set; and

saving said a result set including said user modifications, wherein said result set is saved with an associated keyword and provided as a result for a next user-entered search query that includes said keyword.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

outputting said keywords with an associated weighted value assigned; and

enabling said user to modify the value assigned to each keyword; and

retrieving data linked to said keywords in the order indicated by said value assigned to each of said keywords.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising updating a result set generated by said search engine based on identified keywords and weight values selected by users to associate to said identified keywords.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising identifying keys that are not matched to a keyword within said database for later analysis by a system administrator to provide an update to said database that includes a keyword associated with each of said keys.

20. A computer program product comprising:

a computer readable medium;

program code on said computer readable medium for providing structured search results via an electronic search facility, said program code including code for;

providing a series of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that are available for user-interaction with said electronic search facility;

receiving a search query from a user including a context within which said query is to be searched;

identifying key terms within said context information by parsing said context information;

identifying keywords linked to specific articles that are associated with said key terms;

outputting said keywords to said user;

enabling said user to select specific ones of said keywords that said user thinks is associated with said context;

selecting only those articles linked to said user selected keywords as a result set generated by said search; and

providing said results in a structured format designed to provide said user with more relevant information retrieved from said search based on said context.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein said program code for said providing feature includes code for:

first searching a local database for a match of said query within said context and said keywords; and

when said local database does not contain sufficient results identified by said keywords, completing said search on a larger database that is accessible.

22. A search engine facility provided by a data processing system, said search engine facility comprising:

a user-interactive search engine, which supports entry of context information in the form of goals and objectives that are desired to be resolved by the user;

a first electronic database directly accessible via said search engine and which stores knowledge information that is maintained in a specific format;

a plurality of functional software modules that enables a building of a process that is a solution to a goal and an objective entered by a user for resolution, wherein said building of a process involves retrieval of information from an external source, modification of said information, formatting of said information according to the specific format of knowledge information stored within the first electronic database, and forwarding of said formatted information for storage within said first electronic database;

means for receiving a search request including a context within which a resulting search is to be completed; and

a multi-step search protocol that utilizes said context of said search request to complete a search that provides a structured result set comprising specific information, which is directly relevant to the context provided.

23. The search engine facility of claim 22, wherein said multi-step protocol comprises:

means for parsing said context to generate one or more keys;

means for associating said one or more keys to one or more keywords that are linked to said specific information;

means for assigning a weighted value to each keyword associated with one of said one or more keys;

means for enabling a user to change the weighted values assigned to each keyword; and

means for outputting said result set with the specific information ordered according to the weighted value assigned to corresponding keyword of each individual components returned within said specific information.

24. The search engine facility of claim 23, further comprising:

means for enabling user selection of particular ones among the keywords; and

wherein only those individual components among the specific information that are linked to keywords selected by said user are returned within said result set.

25. A data processing system comprising:

a processor coupled to a read only memory;

a permanent storage device associated with said processor and on which is stored a knowledge database;

connection means for linking said data processing system to an external electronic storage facility with a larger searchable database than said knowledge database;

program modules executed by said processor that provide a search engine that completes a user-entered search utilizing both contextual searching and weighted keyword searching so that more precise and relevant search results are generated.

26. The data processing system of claim 25, further comprising:

a first graphical user interface (GUI) that enables entry of a user search request with context information;

a second GUI that displays a list of weighted keywords generated from said context information and which enables user selection of specific ones of said weighted keywords and values to assign to said specific weighted keywords, wherein said search is conducted utilizing said weighted keywords and a result set of said search is outputted in order of weight assigned to said weighted keywords.

27. The data processing system of claim 26, further comprising:

connection means for connecting to an external database of searchable information; and

a program module that, responsive to a search not yielding a result set with sufficient results from said local database seamlessly expands said search to said external database.