Concept network

• US 20040220905A1
• Filed: 05/01/2003
• Published: 11/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ma, Wei-Ying, Chen, Zheng, Liu, Shengping
• Granted Patent: US 7,406,459 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• 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: Y10S 707/954 Relational
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/959 Network
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/96 Object-relational
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A concept network that can be generated in response to a user query. In one embodiment, the concept network is being used with a search tool. The search tool searches a plurality of data storage locations. Each data storage location is arranged with a node. Certain ones of the nodes are connected by at least one link. The concept network selects a portion of certain ones of the nodes based on the link, wherein the at least one link is used for content purposes.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a search tool for a plurality of data storage locations, each data storage location is arranged into a node, certain nodes are connected by at least one link; and

a concept network that considers a portion of certain ones of the plurality of nodes based on the link, wherein the at least one link is used for content purposes.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the link is used for navigational purposes as well as for content purposes.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the concept network displays certain ones of the plurality of nodes.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the concept network relies on a domain-specific taxonomy portion to select a portion of certain ones of the plurality of nodes.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the domain-specific taxonomy portion selects input from a plurality of domain-specific data storage locations.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the domain-specific taxonomy receives input from an information mining portion.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the information mining portion is based on a link structure.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the concept network selecting a portion of certain ones of the plurality of nodes relies on the structure of the data storage locations.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein said structure is based on a Universal Resource Locator (URL).

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the URL obtains a structure for a plurality of data storage locations.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, further including merging of data storage locations.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the merging is performed by a Web site structure Merging Tool.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising a Web site structure analyzer.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the Web site structure analyzer includes a hyperlink queue.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the Web site structure analyzer includes a Web site crawler.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the Web site structure analyzer includes an HTML parser.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the Web site structure analyzer includes a Function-based Object Model (FOM) analyzer.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the Web site structure analyzer includes a hyperlink analysis.

19. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the concept network relies on structure already contained in the data storage locations.

20. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the concept network utilizes mutual information.

21. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the concept network utilizes entropy.

22. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the concept network utilizes similarity between different word pairs.

23. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the data storage location includes a Web site.

24. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the concept network includes three relationships, i.e. offspring, ancestor, and sibling.

25. An apparatus comprising:

a search tool for a plurality of data storage locations, each data storage locations includes a plurality of nodes; and

a concept network that selects a portion of certain ones of the plurality of nodes based on the structure of the plurality of nodes.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the structure of the plurality of data storage locations is derived based on the Universal Resource Locators (URL) of the data storage locations.

27. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the concept network selects a portion of certain ones of the plurality of nodes based on web merging.

28. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the content network displays a structure including a plurality of web blocks.

29. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the data storage locations includes a Web page.

30. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the concept network includes three relationships, i.e. offspring, ancestor, and sibling.

31. A method, comprising:

receiving a plurality of Universal Resource Locators (URLs) that correspond to a plurality of Web pages;

analyzing the plurality of URLs to determine the content of the plurality of URLs; and

structuring a plurality of web blocks into a concept network based on the analyzed plurality of URLs.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising displaying the concept network.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising receiving user input in response to the displayed concept network.

34. The method of claim 31, further comprising determining whether a particular link is an upward link, a downward link, a sibling link, or a crosswise link based on the URL.

35. A method comprising:

considering a plurality of domain-specific Web sites;

deriving a domain specific taxonomy by analyzing the relative content of a plurality of domain-specific Web sites; and

formulating a concept network based on the domain specific taxonomy.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the domain specific taxonomy is derived based of information mining.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the information mining is based on link structure and content.

38. The method of claim 35, wherein the concept network is formulated based on entropy.

39. The method of claim 35, wherein the concept network is formulated based on mutual information.

40. The method of claim 35, wherein the concept network is formulated based on similarity.

41. A method, comprising:

generating a concept network including

analyzing structure information about a plurality of Web sites based on a query submitted from a user,

determining responses for a “

top N”

type query based on the structure information of the plurality of Web site; and

returning information to the user relating to the determined responses.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein the structural information is based on the Universal Resource Locator (URL).

43. The method of claim 41, wherein the structural information is based on hidden concepts within each Web page.

44. A method, comprising:

generating a concept network including

analyzing structure information about a plurality of data storage locations based on a query submitted from a user,

determining responses for a relevancy type query based on the structure information of the plurality of data storage locations; and

returning information to the user relating to the determined responses.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the structural information is based on a Universal Resource Locator (URL).

46. The method of claim 44, wherein the structural information is based on hidden concepts within each data storage locations.

47. The method of claim 44, wherein the data storage location includes a Web page.

48. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for generating a concept network, comprising:

analyzing structure information about a plurality of Web sites based on a query submitted from a user;

determining responses for a relevancy type query based on the structure information of the plurality of Web site; and

returning information to the user relating to the determined responses.

49. A method comprising:

automatically deriving a domain specific taxonomy by;

analyzing structure information about a plurality of data storage locations based on a query submitted from a user, and

determining responses for a relevancy type query based on the structure information of the plurality of data storage locations.

50. The method of claim 49, further comprising generating a concept network using the domain specific taxonomy.