System and method for searching for a query

• US 20070011154A1
• Filed: 04/11/2006
• Published: 01/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TextDigger, Inc.
• Original Assignee: TextDigger, Inc.
• Inventors: Walsh, Robin, Musgrove, Timothy
• Granted Patent: US 9,400,838 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 40/247 Thesauruses; Synonyms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis

Abstract

A search system for searching for electronic documents, and providing a search result in response to a search query is provided. The search system includes a processor, a user interface module adapted to receive a search query from a user, the search query having at least one search query term, and a query processing module that analyzes the search query term to identify candidate synonym words. The query processing module also determines which of the candidate synonym words are equivalent terms to the search query term, and in a same sense as the search query term. In addition, the search system includes a search engine that executes a search based on the search query term and the equivalent terms.

Claims

1. A search system for searching for electronic documents, and providing a search result in response to a search query, comprising:

a processor;

a user interface module adapted to receive a search query from a user, said search query having at least one search query term;

a query processing module that analyzes said at least one search query term to identify candidate synonym words for said at least one search query term, and determines which of said candidate synonym words are equivalent terms to said at least one search query term, and in a same sense as said at least one search query term as used in said search query; and

a search engine that executes a search based on said at least one search query term and said equivalent terms.

2. The search system of claim 1, further including a prior probability module that calculates and assigns prior probability scores to said candidate synonym words, said prior probability scores reflecting a likelihood of each candidate synonym word being used in an equivalent manner to said at least one search query term.

3. The search system of claim 2, wherein said query processing module determines which of said candidate synonym words are equivalent terms to said at least one search query term based at least partially on said prior probability scores.

4. The search system of claim 2, wherein said prior probability module calculates and assigns prior probability scores for said candidate synonym words based at least partially on at least one of distribution of senses of said at least one search query term, and part-of-speech bias.

5. The search system of claim 1, wherein said query processing module substitutes one of said candidate synonym words into said search query in place of said at least one query search term to generate a modified search query, and said search engine executes a search using said modified search query.

6. The search system of claim 5, wherein said query processing module substitutes each of said candidate synonym words into said search query in place of said at least one query search term to generate modified search queries, and said search engine executes searches using said modified search queries.

7. The search system of claim 6, wherein said query processing module determines which of said candidate synonym words are equivalent terms to said at least one search query term based at least partially on which of said candidate synonym words yield multiple matches in semantically continuous segments retrieved by said search engine.

8. The search system of claim 7, wherein said query processing module determines which of said candidate synonym words that are equivalent terms to said at least one search query term based at least partially on whether said candidate synonym words yield multiple matches in at least two electronic documents.

9. The search system of claim 8, further including a prior probability module that calculates and assigns prior probability scores to said candidate synonym words, said prior probability scores reflecting a likelihood of each candidate synonym word being used in an equivalent manner to said at least one search query term, wherein said query processing module determines which of said candidate synonym words are equivalent terms to said at least one search query term further based on said prior probability scores.

10. The search system of claim 5, further including a query pre-processing module with at least one word set list that lists co-occurring query words in popular queries, wherein said pre-processing module determines equivalent terms to said co-occurring query words.

11. The search system of claim 10, wherein said query pre-processing module retrieves said determined equivalent terms in response to co-occurring query words being submitted as a search query.

12. The search system of claim 1, wherein said query pre-processing module retrieves an intersection of said determined equivalent terms if a plurality of co-occurring query words are submitted as a search query.

13. The search system of claim 1, wherein said use interface module is adapted to display said candidate synonym words that are determined to be equivalent terms to said at least one search query term.

14. The search system of claim 13, wherein said user interface module is adapted to allow at least one of said equivalent terms to be suppressed from being used by said search engine.

15. The search system of claim 1, wherein said use interface module is adapted to display a user selectable alternative sense for said at least one search query term.

16. The search system of claim 1, further including a filtering module adapted to analyze said search query to determine whether said search query is directed to pornography, and block pornographic electronic documents if said search query is determined to be not directed to pornography.

17. A computer implemented method for searching electronic documents, and providing a search result in response to a search query, comprising:

receiving a search query from a user, said search query having at least one search query term;

analyzing said at least one search query term to identify candidate synonym words for said at least one search query term;

determining which of said candidate synonym words are equivalent terms to said at least one search query term, and in a same sense as said at least one search query term as used in said search query; and

providing said at least one search query term and said equivalent terms to a search engine.

18. The method of claim 17, further including executing a search using said at least one search query term and said equivalent terms.

19. The method of claim 17, further including calculating and assigning prior probability scores to said candidate synonym words based on a likelihood of each candidate synonym word being used in an equivalent manner to said at least one search query term.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said determination of which of said candidate synonym words are equivalent terms to said at least one search query term is based at least partially on said prior probability scores.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein said calculation and assignment of said prior probability scores to said candidate synonym words is based at least partially on at least one of distribution of senses of said at least one search query term, and part-of-speech bias.

22. The method of claim 17, further including substituting one of said candidate synonym words into said search query in place of said at least one query search term to generate a modified search query.

23. The method of claim 22, further including executing a search using said modified search query.

24. The method of claim 23, further including substituting each of said candidate synonym words into said search query in place of said at least one query search term to generate modified search queries, and executing searches using said modified search queries.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein said determination of which of said candidate synonym words are equivalent terms to said at least one search query term is based at least partially on which of said candidate synonym words yield multiple matches in semantically continuous segments retrieved.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein said determination of which of said candidate synonym words are equivalent terms to said at least one search query term is based at least partially on whether said candidate synonym words yield multiple matches in at least two electronic documents.

27. The method of claim 26, further including calculating and assigning prior probability scores to said candidate synonym words which reflects a likelihood of each candidate synonym word being used in an equivalent manner to said at least one search query term, wherein said determination of which of said candidate synonym words are equivalent terms to said at least one search query term is further based on said prior probability scores.

28. The method of claim 22, further including providing at least one word set list that lists co-occurring query words in popular queries, and determining equivalent terms to said co-occurring query words.

29. The method of claim 28, further including retrieving said determined equivalent terms in response to co-occurring query words being submitted as a search query.

30. The method of claim 29, further including retrieving an intersection of said determined equivalent terms if a plurality of co-occurring query words are submitted as a search query.

31. The method of claim 17, further including displaying for the user, said candidate synonym words that are determined to be equivalent terms to said at least one search query term.

32. The method of claim 31, further including suppressing at least one of said equivalent terms from being used by said search engine.

33. The method of claim 17, further including displaying a user selectable alternative sense for said at least one search query term.

34. The method of claim 17, further including analyzing said search query to determine whether said search query is directed to pornography, and blocking pornographic electronic documents if said search query is determined to be not directed to pornography.

35. A computer readable medium with executable instructions for searching for electronic documents, and providing a search result in response to a search query, comprising:

instructions for receiving a search query from a user, said search query having at least one search query term;

instructions for analyzing said at least one search query term to identify candidate synonym words for said at least one search query term;

instructions for determining which of said candidate synonym words are equivalent terms to said at least one search query term, and in a same sense as said at least one search query term as used in said search query; and

instructions for providing said at least one search query term and said equivalent terms to a search engine.

36. The computer readable medium of claim 35, further including instructions for executing a search using said at least one search query term and said equivalent terms.

37. The computer readable medium of claim 35, further including instructions for calculating and assigning prior probability scores to said candidate synonym words based on a likelihood of each candidate synonym word being used in an equivalent manner to said at least one search query term.

38. The computer readable medium of claim 37, further including in instructions for determining which of said candidate synonym words are equivalent terms to said at least one search query term based at least partially on said prior probability scores.

39. The computer readable medium of claim 37, further including instructions for calculating and assigning said prior probability scores to said candidate synonym words based at least partially on at least one of distribution of senses of said at least one search query term, and part-of-speech bias.

40. The computer readable medium of claim 36, further including instructions for substituting one of said candidate synonym words into said search query in place of said at least one query search term to generate a modified search query.

41. The computer readable medium of claim 40, further including instructions for executing a search using said modified search query.

42. The computer readable medium of claim 41, further including instructions for substituting each of said candidate synonym words into said search query in place of said at least one query search term to generate modified search queries, and executing searches using said modified search queries.

43. The computer readable medium of claim 42, further including instructions for determining which of said candidate synonym words are equivalent terms to said at least one search query term based at least partially on which of said candidate synonym words yield multiple matches in semantically continuous segments retrieved.

44. The computer readable medium of claim 43, further including instructions for determining which of said candidate synonym words are equivalent terms to said at least one search query term based at least partially on whether said candidate synonym words yield multiple matches in at least two electronic documents.

45. The computer readable medium of claim 44, further including instructions for calculating and assigning prior probability scores to said candidate synonym words which reflects a likelihood of each candidate synonym word being used in an equivalent manner to said at least one search query term, and instructions for determining which of said candidate synonym words are equivalent terms to said at least one search query term based on said prior probability scores.

46. The computer readable medium of claim 40, further including instructions for providing at least one word set list that lists co-occurring query words in popular queries, and instructions for determining equivalent terms to said co-occurring query words.

47. The computer readable medium of claim 46, further including instructions for retrieving said determined equivalent terms in response to co-occurring query words being submitted as a search query.

48. The computer readable medium of claim 47, further including instructions for retrieving an intersection of said determined equivalent terms if a plurality of co-occurring query words are submitted as a search query.

49. The computer readable medium of claim 35, further including instructions for displaying for the user, said candidate synonym words that are determined to be equivalent terms to said at least one search query term.

50. The computer readable medium of claim 49, further including instructions for suppressing at least one of said equivalent terms from being used by said search engine.

51. The computer readable medium of claim 35, further including instructions for displaying a user selectable alternative sense for said at least one search query term.

52. The computer readable medium of claim 35, further including instructions for analyzing said search query to determine whether said search query is directed to pornography, and instructions for blocking pornographic electronic documents if said search query is determined to be not directed to pornography.