Method of search content enhancement

• US 20050065773A1
• Filed: 09/20/2003
• Published: 03/24/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Tu, Chien-Chiao, Kim, Noon Ju, Huang, Chen-Yu
• Granted Patent: US 8,014,997 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3338 Query expansion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/38 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/242 Dictionaries

Abstract

Whenever a document is going to be included into the textual database, a semantic binder is used to associate the document with one or more semantic nodes which are defined in a semantic taxonomy. When a search is performed, a search application looks through a semantic dictionary (which contains a table mapping queries to nodes on the semantic taxonomy) to see whether any corresponding semantic node can be found for the searchers query. If a match is found, the search application transforms the user'"'"'s query into [“original query” OR “semantic node”] so that relevant documents, even they do not contain any user'"'"'s keyword, can also be found in the database. The system binds semantic nodes arranged in a hierarchical structure of the taxonomy using a Log Analyzer which periodically looks through the system log for new queries and through textual indices for documents added to the database to generate the semantic dictionary and to bind the semantic nodes to the queries in the textual indices of the documents.

Claims

1. An self-enhancing search system comprising:

a semantic taxonomy containing semantic nodes in a hierarchical structure;

a search system analyzer that periodically looks through a document and identifies a semantic node term in the semantic taxonomy applicable to the document;

a semantic binder attaching the document to the semantic node term; and

relevant document finder based on enhanced queries including the semantic node term to locate documents applicable to a user'"'"'s search.

2. The search system of claim 1, wherein the enhanced search query includes “

the user'"'"'s search query”

OR “

the semantic node”

.

3. The search system of claim 2 including a semantic dictionary which defines user query terms in accordance with the semantic nodes in the semantic dictionary.

4. The search system of claim 3 including a semantic dictionary builder which examines the system log to increase the terms in the semantic dictionary.

5. The search system of claim 4 including ranking the results of searches using the enhanced queries.

6. The search system of claim 5, including a text analyzer comprising:

a sub-module that identifies domain specific terms in a given query, using domain specific glossary;

a submodule that finds synonyms and related terms for the identified terms, using domain specific thesaurus;

a submodule that finds other statistically close terms; and

a submodule that identifies relevant domain specific categories for the identified terms, using domain specific ontology.

7. The search system of claim 6, wherein the dictionary builder includes:

a submodule that binds queries in the identified semantic taxonomy categories, using the results of the text analyzer.

8. The search system of claim 7, wherein the semantic binder includes:

a submodule that adds new doc-query links to the meta-data of the corresponding textual index entries to link the documents to the semantic taxonomy categories.

9. Self-enhancing search program on a computer usable medium comprising:

semantic taxonomy code containing semantic nodes in a hierarchical structure;

search system analyzer code that periodically looks through a document and identifies a semantic node term in the semantic taxonomy applicable to the document;

semantic binder code attaching the document to the semantic node term; and

relevant document finder based on enhanced queries including the semantic node term to locate documents applicable to a user'"'"'s search.

10. The search program of claim 9, wherein the enhanced search query includes “

the user'"'"'s search query”

OR “

the semantic node”

.

11. The search program of claim 10 including code for a semantic dictionary which defines user query terms in accordance with the semantic nodes in the semantic dictionary.

12. The search system program of claim 11 including code for a semantic dictionary builder which examines the system log to increase the terms in the semantic dictionary.

13. The search system program of claim 12 including code for ranking the results of searches using the enhanced queries.

14. The search system program of claim 13, including a text analyzer comprising:

code for a sub-module that identifies domain specific terms in a given query, using domain specific glossary;

code for a sub-module that finds synonyms and related terms for the identified terms, using domain specific thesaurus;

code for a submodule that finds other statistically close terms; and

code for a submodule that identifies relevant domain specific categories for the identified terms, using domain specific ontology.

15. The search system program of claim 14, wherein the dictionary builder includes a sub-module that binds queries in the identified semantic taxonomy categories, using the original results of the text analyzer.

16. The search system program of claim 15, wherein a semantic binder including the module comprises:

a submodule that adds new doc-query links to the meta-data of the textual index entries to link the documents to the semantic taxonomy categories.