Page-biased search

• US 20060242138A1
• Filed: 08/24/2005
• Published: 10/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Brill, Eric D., Ragno, Robert J.
• Application Number:
  US11/210,652
• Publication Number:
  US 20060242138A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/953 Querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines

Abstract

A system for searching for information is disclosed. The system comprises a search module that obtains a set of results that is responsive to a query. The system also includes a biasing module that ranks members of the set of results based at least in part upon a member of a set of information derived from prior information-gathering tasks. Methods for using such system are also provided.

Claims

1. A system for searching for information, comprising:

a search module that obtains a set of results that is responsive to a query; and

a biasing module that ranks members of the set of results based at least in part upon a member of a set of information derived from a recently-viewed document.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of information is a map that describes an arrangement of documents.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of information is a probability distribution of terms that are included in the recently-viewed document.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of information derived from the recently-viewed document is user demographic information.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the demographic information is probabilistic.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising an expansion module that uses the set of information to expand the query.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the set of information is a set of search queries, wherein each one of the set of search queries returns an identifier for a document as a result that is ranked at least as highly as a preselected ranking.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a navigation module that creates the set of information, wherein the set of information includes a set of likely navigation paths from the recently-viewed document.

9. A method for information searching, comprising:

obtaining a result set wherein each member of the result set is responsive to a query; and

using information obtained from a result of a prior information search to assign a ranking to each member of the result set.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein using information obtained from a result of a prior information search includes using a topological map of a group of documents.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein using information obtained from a result of a prior information search includes using a probability distribution of terms included in a document.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein using information obtained from a result of a prior information search includes using demographic information of a user.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein using information obtained from a result of a prior information search includes using likely demographic information of a user.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising expanding the query.

15. A system for information searching, comprising:

means for obtaining a result set wherein each member of the result set is responsive to a query; and

means for using information obtained from a result of a prior information search to assign a ranking to each member of the result set.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the means for using information obtained from a result of a prior information search includes means for using a topological map of a group of documents.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the means for using information obtained from a result of a prior information search includes means for using a probability distribution of terms included in a document.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the means for using information obtained from a result of a prior information search includes means for using demographic information of a user.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the means for using information obtained from a result of a prior information search includes means for using likely demographic information of a user.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the means for obtaining a result set includes means for expanding the query.