System and method for providing definitions

• US 20040236739A1
• Filed: 06/27/2003
• Published: 11/25/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Nevill-Manning, Craig
• Granted Patent: US 8,255,417 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/242 Dictionaries

Abstract

A system and method for providing definitions is described. A phrase to be defined is received. One or more documents, which each contain at least one definition, are determined. The phrase is matched to at least one of the definitions. One or more definitions for the phrase are presented.

Claims

1. A system for providing definitions, comprising:

a server receiving a phrase to be defined, determining one or more documents each containing at least one definition, and matching the phrase to at least one of the definitions; and

a user interface presenting one or more definitions for the phrase.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein receiving the phrase to be defined, determining one or more documents each containing at least one definition, matching the phrase to at least one of the definitions, and presenting one or more definitions for the phrase are performed substantially in real time, batch mode, or a combination thereof.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the documents are Web pages.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the determining includes conducting a query on a search engine.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the determining includes searching for documents that include a predetermined term in a predetermined field.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the predetermined term includes one of a glossary, definition, and dictionary.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the predetermined field is a title field.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the matching includes determining the presence of the phrase in one or more determined documents.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the matching includes determining the absence of the phrase in one or more determined documents.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein determining the presence of the phrase further includes determining an exact match of the phrase.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the matching comprises modifying the phrase.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein modifying the phrase comprises determining a canonical form of the phrase.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the matching further comprises retrieving an associated definition of the phrase.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein presenting one or more definitions includes ranking the definitions.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the ranking is based at least in part on the documents.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the ranking is based at least in part on the PageRank of the documents associated with the definitions.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the presenting further includes processing the definitions.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein presenting definitions for the phrase includes presenting a substantially most common capitalization of the phrase.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising presenting less common forms of the phrase.

20. The system of claim 1, further comprising determining superstrings of the phrase present in the documents.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising presenting at least some of the determined superstrings.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein at least one of the presented superstrings is presented as one of a related phrase and a suggested query.

23. A method for providing definitions, comprising:

receiving a phrase to be defined;

determining one or more documents each containing at least one definition;

matching the phrase to at least one of the definitions; and

presenting one or more definitions for the phrase.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein receiving the phrase to be defined, determining one or more documents each containing at least one definition, matching the phrase to at least one of the definitions, and presenting one or more definitions for the phrase are performed substantially in real time, batch mode, or a combination thereof.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the documents are Web pages.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the determining includes conducting a query on a search engine.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the determining includes searching for documents that include a predetermined term in a predetermined field.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the predetermined term includes one of a glossary, definition, and dictionary.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the predetermined field is a title field.

30. The method of claim 23, wherein the matching includes determining the presence of the phrase in one or more determined documents.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the matching includes determining the absence of the phrase in one or more determined documents.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein determining the presence of the phrase further includes determining an exact match of the phrase.

33. The method of claim 30, wherein the matching comprises modifying the phrase.

34. The method of claim 30, wherein modifying the phrase comprises determining a canonical form of the phrase.

35. The method of claim 23, wherein the matching further comprises retrieving an associated definition of the phrase.

36. The method of claim 23, wherein presenting one or more definitions includes ranking the definitions.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the ranking is based at least in part on the documents.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the ranking is based at least in part on the PageRank of the documents associated with the definitions.

39. The method of claim 23, wherein the presenting further includes processing the definitions.

40. The method of claim 23, wherein presenting definitions for the phrase includes presenting a substantially most common capitalization of the phrase.

41. The method of claim 40, further comprising presenting less common forms of the phrase.

42. The method of claim 23, further comprising determining superstrings of the phrase present in the documents.

43. The method of claim 42, further comprising presenting at least some of the determined superstrings.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein at least one of the presented superstrings is presented as one of a related phrase and a suggested query.

45. A computer-readable storage medium holding code for performing the method according to claim 23.

46. An apparatus for providing definitions, comprising:

means for receiving a phrase to be defined;

means for determining one or more documents each containing at least one definition;

means for matching the phrase to at least one of the definitions; and

means for presenting one or more definitions for the phrase.

47. A system for determining definitions from distributed information stores, comprising:

a search engine identifying one or more documents, which is each maintained in a distributed information store and contains a definition for an associated phrase, and storing information regarding each identified document; and

a search front end matching a phrase for which a definition is sought against the stored information for each identified document, fetching each identified document from the distributed information store and returning one or more matching definitions, and presenting each matching definitions.

48. A system according to claim 47, further comprising:

a repository storing the information for a subset of the identified documents.

49. A system according to claim 47, further comprising:

a query engine conducting a query for the phrase for which a definition is sought, comprising at least one of searching for at least one of terms, phrases, variants, and canonicalizations indicating a presence of a definition, searching for text or fields within a document indicating a presence of a definition, and searching a structure of a document indicating a presence of a definition.

50. A system according to claim 47, further comprising:

a parser parsing the identified documents to identify occurrences of the phrase for which a definition is sought.

51. A system according to claim 47, further comprising:

a processor processing the matching definitions, comprising at least one of;

a filter limiting the matching definitions to substantially matching definitions; and

a definitions module providing at least one of a superstring, common variants, and common forms of the phrase for which a definition is sought.

52. A system according to claim 47, wherein the matching definitions comprise at least one of matching terms and phrases, related terms and phrases, and random and eclectic terms and phrases.

53. A method for determining definitions from distributed information stores, comprising:

identifying one or more documents, which is each maintained in a distributed information store and contains a definition for an associated phrase, and storing information regarding each identified document;

matching a phrase for which a definition is sought against the stored information for each identified document;

fetching each identified document from the distributed information store and returning one or more matching definitions; and

presenting each matching definitions.

54. A method according to claim 53, further comprising:

storing the information for a subset of the identified documents.

55. A method according to claim 53, further comprising:

conducting a query for the phrase for which a definition is sought, comprising at least one of;

searching for at least one of terms, phrases, variants, and canonicalizations indicating a presence of a definition;

searching for text or fields within a document indicating a presence of a definition; and

searching a structure of a document indicating a presence of a definition.

56. A method according to claim 53, further comprising:

parsing the identified documents to identify occurrences of the phrase for which a definition is sought.

57. A method according to claim 53, further comprising:

processing the matching definitions, comprising at least one of;

limiting the matching definitions to substantially matching definitions; and

providing at least one of a superstring, common variants, and common forms of the phrase for which a definition is sought.

58. A method according to claim 53, wherein the matching definitions comprise at least one of matching terms and phrases, related terms and phrases, and random and eclectic terms and phrases.

59. A computer-readable storage medium holding code for performing the method according to claim 53.

60. An apparatus for determining definitions from distributed information stores, comprising:

means for identifying one or more documents, which is each maintained in a distributed information store and contains a definition for an associated phrase, and means for storing information regarding each identified document;

means for matching a phrase for which a definition is sought against the stored information for each identified document;

means for fetching each identified document from the distributed information store and means for returning one or more matching definitions; and

means for presenting each matching definitions.