Language converter with enhanced search capability

• US 20060235677A1
• Filed: 04/19/2005
• Published: 10/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chen, Yen-Fu, Dunsmoir, John W., Shankar, Hari
• Granted Patent: US 7,516,062 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/313 Selection or weighting of terms for indexing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/129 Handling non-Latin characters, e.g. kana-to-kanji conversion

Abstract

A weighted search program is disclosed. The weighted search program may be integrated into a translation program, or the weighted search program may be used independently with an available search engine. When integrated with the translation program, setting and weighting may be combined in a single search. In one embodiment, the weighting would be used in conjunction with a Pin Yin translation program so that a user could set some terms, and allocate a search weight to the remaining terms. The invention may be applied independently in Internet searching so that a user can apply weights to multiple elements of a search term.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a computer connected to the Internet;

a translation program residing in a memory of the computer; and

a weighted search program residing in the memory of the computer;

wherein the translation program converts hybrid and unaccented Pin Yin words to Simplified Chinese characters, Traditional Chinese characters, and accented Pin Yin words; and

wherein the weighted search program enables a user to select a plurality of characters to be searched and apply a weight to each of the plurality of characters to be searched, so that a search is performed in accordance with the weight applied to each of the plurality of characters.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the weighted search program further comprises:

instructions to cause the computer to allow the user to select a plurality of characters from a text on web page, and to cause the computer to enter the plurality of characters in a child window display where a weight can be assigned to each of the plurality of characters, a search activated, and a search result displayed.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the weighted search program further comprises:

instructions to cause the computer to allow the user to select a search engine from a list of uniform resource locator addresses displayed at a child window, and responsive to the user selecting one of the search engines on the list, integrating the weighted search capability of the weighted search program with the search engine.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the weighted search program provides a display for each of a plurality of search terms entered by the user in the search engine so that the user can assign a weight to each of the selected search terms.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the translation program and the weighted search program are integrated into an enhanced translation program.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the weighted search program is an independent program adapted to operate in conjunction with the translation program.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the weighted search program is adapted to operate independently with an existing search engine.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the weighted search program is adapted for operation from any web page by turning the web page mode to search.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the weighted search program enables a user to identify text anywhere on a web page and to add the text to a child window so that the user may see the sequence of data selected for search and add weight to each of the search terms.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the weighted search program enables a user to view consolidated search engine uniform resource locators at a child window, to select search terms in a parent window, to send the search terms to a selected search engine, and to return a result in the parent window.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the weighted search program enables a user to apply weight to a selected text on a web page.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the weighted search program enables a user to apply weight to a selected text in a search field.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the weighted search program enables a user to standardize the weights.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the weighted search program enables a user to normalize the weights across a plurality of search engines.

15. A method comprising:

using a web based computer program, entering a plurality of search terms in a web page; and

using a weighted search program adapted for integration with the web based computer program, and applying a weight to each of the plurality of search terms, so that a search is performed in accordance with the weight applied to each of the plurality of characters.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

selecting a plurality of characters from a text on web page, entering the plurality of characters in a child window display, and assigning a weight to each of the plurality of characters, activating a search, and displaying a search result.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

selecting a search engine from a list of uniform resource locator addresses displayed at a child window, and responsive selecting one of the search engines on the list, applying weights to each of the plurality of search terms.

18. A computer program product comprising:

means for causing a computer connected to the Internet, responsive to a user input at a web page, to apply a weight to each of a plurality of search terms in the user input, so that a search is performed over the Internet and in accordance with the weight applied to each of the plurality of characters.

19. The computer program product of claim 18 further comprising:

means for causing the computer to allow the user to select a plurality of characters from a text on the web page, and to cause the computer to enter the plurality of characters in a child window display where a weight can be assigned to each of the plurality of characters, a search activated, and a search result displayed.

20. The computer program product of claim 18 further comprising:

means for causing the computer to interact with a ratings engine and a ratings database so that a search result order is modified in accordance with the ratings engine.