Augmenting queries with synonyms from synonyms map

• US 20070288448A1
• Filed: 04/19/2006
• Published: 12/13/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Datta, Ruchira
• Granted Patent: US 8,255,376 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3338 Query expansion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/247 Thesauruses; Synonyms

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, operable to perform operations including receiving through a user interface with an interface language a search query having query terms; using the interface language to select one or more mappings and using the selected mappings to simplify each query term; and applying each simplified query term to a synonyms map to identify possible synonyms with which to augment the search query. In alternative embodiments, the operations include generating a synonyms map from a corpus of documents; where the synonyms map maps each of multiple keys to one or more corresponding variants, where each variant is associated with one or more of document languages. In alternative embodiments, the operations include generating a synonyms map from documents by applying document language-dependent mappings to words in the documents to generate keys for the map.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:

receiving from a user through a user interface a search query comprising one or more query terms, the user interface having an interface language, the interface language being a natural language;

using the interface language to select one or more mappings and using the selected one or more mappings to simplify each query term to a corresponding simplified query term; and

applying each simplified query term to a synonyms map to identify possible synonyms with which to augment the search query.

2. A computer implemented method, comprising:

generating a synonyms map from a corpus of documents, each document having attributed to it a document language, the document languages each being a natural language;

wherein;

the synonyms map maps each of a plurality of keys to one or more corresponding variants; and

each variant is associated with one or more of the document languages.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein:

for each associated language, each variant is associated with a score indicating a relative frequency of the variant among all variants for the associated language for the same key.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the attribution of a document language to each document is determined automatically.

5. A computer implemented method, comprising:

generating a synonyms map from a corpus of documents by applying a first collection of language-dependent mappings to words in the corpus to generate keys for the map, each document having a document language attributed to it, the document language attributed to each document being used to determine the language-dependent mapping applied to words the document.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

generating a simplified query term from each query term in a search query by applying a second collection of language-dependent mappings to each query term, the search query having an query language attributed to it, the query language attributed to the search query being used to determine the language-dependent mapping applied to each query term.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein:

the first collection of language-dependent mappings is different from the second collection of language-dependent mappings.

8. A computer implemented method, comprising:

generating a synonyms map from a corpus of documents by applying a first collection of language-dependent mappings to words in the corpus to generate keys for the map, each document having a document language attributed to it, the document language attributed to each document being used to determine the language-dependent mapping applied to words the document;

generating simplified query terms from a search query by applying a second collection of language-dependent mappings to query terms in the search query, the search query having an query language attributed to it, the query language attributed to the search query being used to determine the language-dependent mapping applied to the query terms;

wherein

the search query includes a first query term, the first query term being mapped to a first simplified query term by the applied language-dependent mapping from the second collection of language-dependent mappings determined by the query language, the first query term being mapped to a first key by the language-dependent mapping in the first collection of language-dependent mappings determined by to the query language, and the first simplified query term is different from the first key.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

attributing the interface language to the query as the query language.

10. A computer program product, encoded on a computer-readable medium, operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving from a user through a user interface a search query comprising one or more query terms, the user interface having an interface language, the interface language being a natural language;

using the interface language to select one or more mappings and using the selected one or more mappings to simplify each query term to a corresponding simplified query term; and

applying each simplified query term to a synonyms map to identify possible synonyms with which to augment the search query.

11. A computer program product, encoded on a computer-readable medium, operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

generating a synonyms map from a corpus of documents, each document having attributed to it a document language, the document languages each being a natural language;

wherein;

the synonyms map maps each of a plurality of keys to one or more corresponding variants; and

each variant is associated with one or more of the document languages.

12. The product of claim 11, wherein:

for each associated language, each variant is associated with a score indicating a relative frequency of the variant among all variants for the associated language for the same key.

13. The product of claim 11, wherein:

the attribution of a document language to each document is determined automatically.

14. A computer program product, encoded on a computer-readable medium, operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

generating a synonyms map from a corpus of documents by applying a first collection of language-dependent mappings to words in the corpus to generate keys for the map, each document having a document language attributed to it, the document language attributed to each document being used to determine the language-dependent mapping applied to words the document.

15. The product of claim 14, the operations further comprising:

generating a simplified query term from each query term in a search query by applying a second collection of language-dependent mappings to each query term, the search query having an query language attributed to it, the query language attributed to the search query being used to determine the language-dependent mapping applied to each query term.

16. The product of claim 15, wherein:

the first collection of language-dependent mappings is different from the second collection of language-dependent mappings.

17. A computer program product, encoded on a computer-readable medium, operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

generating a synonyms map from a corpus of documents by applying a first collection of language-dependent mappings to words in the corpus to generate keys for the map, each document having a document language attributed to it, the document language attributed to each document being used to determine the language-dependent mapping applied to words the document;

generating simplified query terms from a search query by applying a second collection of language-dependent mappings to query terms in the search query, the search query having an query language attributed to it, the query language attributed to the search query being used to determine the language-dependent mapping applied to the query terms;

wherein;

the search query includes a first query term, the first query term being mapped to a first simplified query term by the applied language-dependent mapping from the second collection of language-dependent mappings determined by the query language, the first query term being mapped to a first key by the language-dependent mapping in the first collection of language-dependent mappings determined by to the query language, and the first simplified query term is different from the first key.

18. The product of claim 17, the operations further comprising:

attributing the interface language to the query as the query language.

19. A system comprising:

means for receiving from a user through a user interface a search query comprising one or more query terms, the user interface having an interface language, the interface language being a natural language;

means for using the interface language to select one or more mappings and using the selected one or more mappings to simplify each query term to a corresponding simplified query term; and

means for applying each simplified query term to a synonyms map to identify possible synonyms with which to augment the search query.

20. A system comprising:

means for generating a synonyms map from a corpus of documents, each document having attributed to it a document language, the document languages each being a natural language;

wherein;

the synonyms map maps each of a plurality of keys to one or more corresponding variants; and

each variant is associated with one or more of the document languages.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein:

for each associated language, each variant is associated with a score indicating a relative frequency of the variant among all variants for the associated language for the same key.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein:

the attribution of a document language to each document is determined automatically.

23. A system comprising:

means for generating a synonyms map from a corpus of documents by applying a first collection of language-dependent mappings to words in the corpus to generate keys for the map, each document having a document language attributed to it, the document language attributed to each document being used to determine the language-dependent mapping applied to words the document.

24. The system of claim 23, further comprising:

means for generating a simplified query term from each query term in a search query by applying a second collection of language-dependent mappings to each query term, the search query having an query language attributed to it, the query language attributed to the search query being used to determine the language-dependent mapping applied to each query term.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein:

the first collection of language-dependent mappings is different from the second collection of language-dependent mappings.

26. A system comprising:

means for generating a synonyms map from a corpus of documents by applying a first collection of language-dependent mappings to words in the corpus to generate keys for the map, each document having a document language attributed to it, the document language attributed to each document being used to determine the language-dependent mapping applied to words the document;

means for generating simplified query terms from a search query by applying a second collection of language-dependent mappings to query terms in the search query, the search query having an query language attributed to it, the query language attributed to the search query being used to determine the language-dependent mapping applied to the query terms;

wherein

the search query includes a first query term, the first query term being mapped to a first simplified query term by the applied language-dependent mapping from the second collection of language-dependent mappings determined by the query language, the first query term being mapped to a first key by the language-dependent mapping in the first collection of language-dependent mappings determined by to the query language, and the first simplified query term is different from the first key.

27. The system of claim 26, further comprising:

means for attributing the interface language to the query as the query language.