Method and system to facilitate a search of an information resource

• US 20050251510A1
• Filed: 05/07/2004
• Published: 11/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Monier, Louis Marcel Gino, Arora, Aditya, Billingsley, Eric Noel
• Granted Patent: US 8,090,698 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90 Details of database functions independent of the retrieved data types
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/906 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A method and system facilitate a search of an information resource. The system identifies data items within the information resource and determines a respective attribute value from each data item. The system analyzes the attribute values to identify a distribution of the data items based on a predetermined range of attribute values that are associated with the first attribute and determines if the identified distribution of data items facilitates the search of the information resource.

Claims

1. A system to facilitate a search of an information resource, the system including:

an identifying module to identify a plurality of data items within the information resource;

an analyzing module to determine a respective attribute value to correspond to a first attribute for each data item to generate a plurality of attribute values, the analyzing module to analyze the plurality of attribute values to identify a distribution of the plurality of data items based on a predetermined range of attribute values for the first attribute; and

a determining module to determine if the identified distribution of the plurality of data items facilitates the search of the information resource.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the respective attribute value comprises any one of a group including a numeric attribute value and a text attribute value.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the identifying module is to identify the plurality of data items based on at least one of a keyword request, a browse request and the first attribute.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined range of attribute values includes any one of a group including a first plurality of sub-range attribute values and a plurality of exact-match attribute values.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the determining module is to detect at least a bimodal distribution.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the determining module is to determine whether the frequency of data items for at least two exact match attribute values exceeds a threshold.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the determining module is to determine whether the frequency of data items for at least two sub-range attribute values exceeds a threshold.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein the determining module is to substitute a second plurality of sub-range attribute values for the first plurality of sub-range attribute values.

9. The system of claim 1, further including a communication module to communicate the distribution the plurality of data items to a user.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the communication module is to at least one of display a histogram to the user, display a pie chart to the user and display frequency values to the user.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication module is to generate a plurality of attribute selectors based on a plurality of distributions of plurality of data items and to communicate the plurality of attribute selectors to the user.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of data items are a plurality of listings in a network-based marketplace, and each listing of the plurality of listings comprises any one of a group including an item listing and a service listing.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the identification module is to identify the plurality of data items without a query to a database.

14. A method to facilitate a search of an information resource, the method including:

identifying a plurality of data items within the information resource;

determining a respective attribute value corresponding to a first attribute for each data item to generate a plurality of attribute values;

analyzing the plurality of attribute values to identify a distribution of the plurality of data items based on a predetermined range of attribute values for the first attribute; and

determining if the identified distribution of the plurality of data items facilitates the search of the information resource.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the respective attribute value comprises any one of a group including a numeric attribute value and a text attribute value.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the identifying of the plurality of data items includes any one of a group including identifying based on keyword request, a browse request, and the first attribute.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the predetermined range of attribute values includes any one of a group including a first plurality of sub-range attribute values and a plurality of exact-match attribute values.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the determining includes detecting at least a bimodal distribution.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the determining includes identifying if the frequency of data items for at least two exact match attribute values exceeds a threshold.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the determining includes identifying if the frequency of data items for at least two sub-range attribute values exceeds a threshold.

21. The method of claim 17, further including substituting a second plurality of sub-range attribute values for the first plurality of sub-range attribute values.

22. The method of claim 14, further including communicating the distribution of the plurality of data items to a user.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the communicating of the distribution of the plurality of data items to the user includes any one of a group including displaying a histogram to the user, displaying a pie chart to the user and displaying frequency values to the user.

24. The method of claim 14, further including generating a plurality of attribute selectors based on a plurality of distributions of the plurality of data items and communicating the plurality of attribute selectors to the user.

25. The method of claim 14, wherein the plurality of data items are a plurality of listings in a network-based marketplace, and each listing of the plurality of listings comprises any one of a group including an item listing and a service listing.

26. The method of claim 14, wherein the identifying the plurality of data items is performed without querying a database.

27. A machine readable medium storing a set of instructions that, when executed by the machine, cause the machine to:

identify a plurality of data items within the information resource;

determine a respective attribute value corresponding to a first attribute for each data item to generate a plurality of attribute values;

analyze the plurality of attribute values to identify a distribution of the plurality of data items based on a predetermined range of attribute values for the first attribute; and

determine if the identified distribution of the plurality of data items facilitates the search of the information resource.

28. A system to facilitate a search of an information resource, the system including:

an first means for identifying a plurality of data items within the information resource;

an second means for determining a respective attribute value that corresponds to a first attribute for each data item to generate a plurality of attribute values, and for analyzing the plurality of attribute values to identify a distribution of the plurality of data items based on a predetermined range of attribute values for the first attribute; and

a third means for determining if the identified distribution of the plurality of data items facilitates the search of the information resource.