Comparative web search

• US 20070208701A1
• Filed: 03/01/2006
• Published: 09/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chen, Zheng, Wang, Xuanhui, Sun, Jian-Tao, Wang, Jian, Zeng, Hua-Jun, Shen, Dou
• Granted Patent: US 7,571,162 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/355 Class or cluster creation or modification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for performing a comparative search. In one example, the comparative search is performed over a network, such as the web, or a database. In one exemplary implementation, a user transmits a plurality of queries which represent the topics that a user wants to compare, and a computing system can automatically retrieve and rank web pages or documents based on both their relevance to queries and the comparative contents they contain. In one such example, the comparative pages are displayed in a pair or other form of a grouping. In another example, comparative results having similar contents may be clustered into meaningful themes.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for ranking comparative web results comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving a first search query;

(b) receiving a second search query that is related to the first search query;

(c) processing the first search query to produce first search results and processing the second search query to produce second search results; and

(d) generating a plurality of comparative search result groups that each include an element from the first search results and an element from the second search results.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least one search result group of (d) is a pair of web pages.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising the step of:

(e) displaying the pair of web pages in a pair wise manner.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising the steps of:

(e) extracting at least one portion of each web page within the pair, the portion comprising at least one element from either the first and second search results.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first search query relates to a consumer product and the second search query relates to a similar consumer product.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating the plurality of comparative search result groups uses Equation (1).

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

(e) determining that a subset of the plurality of comparative search result groups generated in (d) comprise similar information; and

(f) clustering the subset into a cluster.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising the step of:

(g) extracting at least one portion of at least one web page within the cluster, the portion comprising including at least one element from either the first and second search results.

9. A computer-implemented method for obtaining comparative web results from a computing device operatively connected to a network through a browser comprising the steps of:

(a) transmitting a first search query to obtain a first search result;

(b) transmitting a second search query that is related to the first search query to obtain a second search result;

(c) receiving a plurality of comparative search result groups that each include an element from the first search result and an element from the second search result.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein at least one search group of (c) is a pair of web pages.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising the step of:

(d) displaying on a display device the pair of web pages to a user in a pair wise manner.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

(d) extracting at least one portion of each web page within the pair, the portion comprising including at least one element from either the first and second search results; and

(e) displaying the portion of the web pages within the pair to a user.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the plurality of comparative search result groups received in step (c) are generated according to a method incorporating Equation (1).

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising the step of:

(d) displaying a cluster comprising a subset of the plurality of comparative search result groups generated in (c) that comprise similar information.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising the step of:

(e) displaying a summary of the information within the subset of the plurality of comparative search results, the summary comprising at least one element from either the first and second search results.

16. A computing device for ranking comparative web results device having a processor, and a computer-readable medium, the computer-readable comprising computer-readable instructions that when executed perform the method of:

(a) receiving a first search query;

(b) receiving a second search query that is related to the first search query;

(c) processing the first search query to produce first search results and processing the second search query to produce second search results; and

(d) generating a plurality of comparative search result groups that each include an element from the first search results and an element from the second search results.

17. The computing device of claim 16, wherein at least one search group of (d) is a pair of web pages.

18. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the computer-readable instructions further comprise the step of:

(e) extracting at least one portion of each webpage within the pair, the portion comprising including at least one element from either the first and second search results.

19. The computing device of claim 16, wherein (d) comprises Equation (1).

20. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the computer-readable instructions further comprise the steps of:

(e) determining that a subset of the plurality of comparative search result groups generated in (d) comprise similar information; and

(f) clustering the subset into a cluster.