System and method for providing a response to a search query

• US 20060259467A1
• Filed: 05/11/2005
• Published: 11/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WW Grainger Incorporated
• Original Assignee: WW Grainger Incorporated
• Inventors: Westphal, Geoffry A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,546,289 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3338 Query expansion
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation

Abstract

A system receives a request to search an electronic catalog of a vendor which specifies a query term. The query term is used to search an electronic catalog of a third party. The results obtained by searching the electronic catalog of the third party are parsed to uncover a keyword recognized by a search engine associated with the electronic catalog of the vendor. The uncovered keyword is then used in the search engine associated with the electronic catalog of the vendor to locate one or more items in the electronic catalog of the vendor. Items located in this manner are the search results responsive to the query term.

Claims

1. A method for providing a search result, comprising:

receiving a request to search a database of a vendor which specifies a query term;

using the query term to search a database of a third party;

parsing the results obtained by searching the database of the third party to uncover a keyword recognized by a search engine associated with the database of the vendor;

using the uncovered keyword in the search engine associated with the database of the vendor to locate an item in the database of the vendor; and

providing the items in the database of the vendor as the search result responsive to the query term.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, comprising using a spidering program to search the database of the third party.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, comprising ranking the one or more items in the database of the vendor according to a deemed relevancy.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the relevancy is determined based upon a type of the keyword recognized by the search engine.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the query term is entered into a Web page.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the query term is provided via an email.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the query term is provided via an IVR system.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, comprising parsing the results obtained by searching the database of the third party to uncover delimiters which function to distinguish between multiple items in results obtained by searching the database of the third party.

28. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein multiple keywords are uncovered during the step of parsing and the method comprises allowing a user to select one or more of the keywords for use in the search engine.

29. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the query term is extracted from a customer master file.

9. A readable media having instructions for providing a search result, the instructions performing steps comprising:

receiving a request to search a database of a vendor which specifies a query term;

using the query term to search a database of a third party;

parsing the results obtained by searching the database of the third party to uncover a keyword recognized by a search engine associated with the database of the vendor;

using the uncovered keyword in the search engine associated with the database of the vendor to locate an item in the database of the vendor; and

providing the item in the database of the vendor as the search result responsive to the query term.

10. The readable media as recited in claim 9, comprising a spidering program to search the database of the third party.

11. The readable media as recited in claim 9, wherein the instructions rank the one or more items in the database of the vendor according to a deemed relevancy.

12. The readable media as recited in claim 11, wherein the relevancy is determined based upon a type of the keyword recognized by the search engine.

13. The readable media as recited in claim 9, wherein the query term is entered into a Web page.

14. The readable media as recited in claim 9, wherein the query term is provided via an email.

15. The readable media as recited in claim 9, wherein the query term is provided via an IVR system.

16. The readable media as recited in claim 9, wherein the instructions parse the results obtained by searching the database of the third party to uncover delimiters which function to distinguish between multiple items in results obtained by searching the database of the third party.

17. The readable media as recited in claim 9, wherein the instructions use the query term to search the database of the third party following the use of the query term in the search engine associated with the database of the vendor and a null search result being obtained.

18. The readable media as recited in claim 9, wherein the database of the vendor comprises an electronic product catalog.

19. A readable media having instructions for providing a search result, the instructions performing steps comprising:

receiving at a computer for use with a search engine a request to search a first database which specifies a first query term which is unrecognized by the search engine;

accessing a second database via a network and using the first query term to find a second query term which is recognized by the search engine;

using the second query term with the search engine to perform a search of the first database; and

providing results obtained from a search of the first database using the second query term as the search result responsive to the first query term.

20. The readable media as recited in claim 19, wherein the instructions store a mapping between the first query term and second query term to thereby eliminate the need for performing the step of accessing the Internet should the first query term be again received in a request to search the database.

21. The readable media as recited in claim 19, wherein the query term which is recognized by the search engine is maintained within a keyword list.

22. The readable media as recited in claim 19, wherein the network comprises the Internet.

23. The readable media as recited in claim 22, wherein the first database comprises a vendor database and the second database comprises a third party database.

24. A method for providing a search result, comprising:

receiving at a computer for use with a search engine a request to search a first database which specifies a first query term which is unrecognized by the search engine;

accessing a second database via a network and using the first query term to find a second query term which is recognized by the search engine;

using the second query term with the search engine to perform a search of the first database; and

providing results obtained from a search of the first database using the second query term as the search result responsive to the first query term.

25. The method as recited in claim 24, comprising storing a mapping between the first query term and second query term to thereby eliminate the need for performing the step of accessing the Internet should the first query term be again received in a request to search the database.

26. The method as recited in claim 24, wherein the network comprises the Internet.

27. The method as recited in claim 26, wherein the first database comprises a vendor database and the second database comprises a third party database.

30. A computer-readable media having instructions for providing a search result, the instructions performing steps comprising:

parsing a customer master file to discern item entries and to uncover one or more keywords within the item entries which keywords are recognized by a search engine associated with the database of the vendor;

using the uncovered keywords in the search engine associated with the database of the vendor to uncover one or more items in the database of the vendor; and

providing the one or more items in the database of the vendor as the search result.