Server side search with multi-word word wheeling and wildcard expansion

• US 20070168469A1
• Filed: 01/17/2006
• Published: 07/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sharpe, Timothy, Thiesson, Bo, Church, Kenneth
• Granted Patent: US 7,769,804 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90324 using system suggestions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/232 Orthographic correction, e.g. spell checking or vowelisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides systems and/or methods that expand input data. An interface can obtain input data and a wildcard insertion component can modify the input data to include at least one implicit wildcard inserted at an end of each intended word. Additionally, an expansion component can generate a candidate list of expanded data based at least in part on the input data including the at least one implicit wildcard utilizing a language model that provides likely expansions of wildcards. Further, the expansion component can evaluate the input data at a server side.

Claims

1. A system that evaluates wildcards, comprising:

an interface that receives input data at a server side, the input data is provided by a client component; and

an expansion component that evaluates the input data at the server side utilizing a language model to produce a set of expansions where a wildcard located in a midst of the input data is replaced with at least one alphanumeric character for at least one of the expansions of the set.

2. The system of claim 1, the expansion component utilizes the language model to generate the k-best expansions associated with at least one of an implicit wildcard and an explicit wildcard.

3. The system of claim 1, the expansion component employs a suffix tree to produce the set of expansions.

4. The system of claim 3, the suffix tree includes suffixes sorted by popularity and alphabetic order.

5. The system of claim 1, the expansion component evaluates a received short message service (SMS) message that is associated with at least one of an implicit wildcard and an explicit wildcard and provides a return SMS message that includes the n-best search results for the m-best expansions.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a wildcard insertion component that enables the expansion component to evaluate at least one implicit wildcard associated with the input data.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a local context component that provides expansions relevant to obtained location data.

8. The system of claim 7, the local context component utilizes a language model that increases a likelihood of expansions related to places and decreases a likelihood of expansions related to people.

9. The system of claim 7, further comprising a search component that generates results corresponding to the location data for a selected expansion.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a filter component that filters a particular expansion from the set based on at least one of a nature of the particular expansion and a nature of a search result associated with the particular expansion.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a personalization component that utilizes a particular user'"'"'s preferences and historical data to generate a personalized set of expansions.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a rank component that provides an order for the expansions in the set based at least in part upon a likelihood corresponding to each of the expansions.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising an embedding component that includes results from a search associated with a most likely expansion from the set along with the set of expansions.

14. A methodology that facilitates evaluating a wildcard associated with input data, comprising:

obtaining input data at a server;

generating expansions of at least one wildcard interspersed within the input data utilizing a language model; and

creating an order for the expansions in a candidate list that is provided to a client.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising performing a search based upon a selected expansion from the candidate list.

16. The method of claim 14, creating the order further comprises ordering the expansions based on at least one of a popularity and an alphabetic order.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising displaying the candidate list such that characters in the expansions that match the input data are visibly distinct from characters that replace the at least one wildcard.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising filtering a particular expansion from the candidate list based on at least one of a nature of the particular expansion and a nature of a search result associated with the particular expansion.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising receiving a short message service (SMS) message that includes the input data and transmitting a return SMS message that includes at least one of the candidate list and the n-best search results for the m-best expansions.

20. A system that evaluates a wildcard and performs a search, comprising:

means for receiving input data at a server;

means for generating expansions of at least one wildcard intermixed in the input data utilizing a language model; and

means for performing a search based at least in part upon a particular one of the expansions.