Intelligent search results blending

• US 20060287980A1
• Filed: 06/21/2005
• Published: 12/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ratnaparkhi, Adwait, Liu, Jun, Katariya, Sanjeev, Yao, Qi
• Application Number:
  US11/157,599
• Publication Number:
  US 20060287980A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

The subject invention relates to systems and methods that automatically combine or interleave received search results from across knowledge databases in a uniform and consistent manner. In one aspect, an automated search results blending system is provided. The system includes a search component that directs a query to at least two databases. A learning component is employed to rank or score search results that are received from the databases in response to the query. A blending component automatically interleaves or combines the results according to the rank in order to provide a consistent ranking system across differing knowledge sources and search tools.

Claims

1. An automated search results blending system, comprising:

a search component that directs a query to at least two databases;

a learning component that is employed to rank search results received from the databases; and

a blending component that interleaves the results according to the rank.

2. The system of claim 1, the learning component employs at least one Bayesian classifier.

3. The system of claim 2, the Bayesian classifier determines a probability of a search term given evidence of the search term in the databases.

4. The system of claim 1, the evidence relates to a term frequency, a term location, a time factor, or metadata describing relationships between terms.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a graphical user interface for submitting queries to the search component or to display the results.

6. The system of claim 5, the user interface displays the results according to a blending ratio determined from the results.

7. The system of claim 1, the databases are associated with a query log.

8. The system of claim 1, the search component is associated with a search engine or a search tool.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a merging tool and a measuring tool for analyzing the results.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component to process at least one of a training data set and a test data set.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component to at least one of train a runtime classifier, evaluate a runtime classifier, analyze a runtime classifier, and diagnose a runtime classifier.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component to organize files from the databases.

13. The system of claim 12, the files include at least one of a title, a description, and a universal resource locator (URL).

14. A computer readable medium having computer readable instructions stored thereon for implementing the components of claim 1.

15. An automated query result ranking method, comprising:

submitting a query to at least two search engines;

automatically classifying a plurality of terms in databases associated with the search engines;

determining a blending ratio for search results associated with the terms in the databases; and

combining the search results in a output display according to the blending ratio.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising determining a probability for the terms.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising determining the probability for the terms based at least in part on a frequency of the terms appearing in the database.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising providing a user interface to interact with the search engines.

19. The method of claim 15, the databases include local or remote networked databases.

20. A system to facilitate computer ranking operations, comprising:

means for querying a plurality of databases;

means for ranking data within the databases;

means for automatically blending search results from the databases in view of the ranking; and

means for automatically displaying the search results from the plurality of databases.