Intent based search

• US 20070294240A1
• Filed: 06/07/2006
• Published: 12/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Steele, Mackenzie, Aziz, Imran
• Application Number:
  US11/448,646
• Publication Number:
  US 20070294240A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/38 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

A system, a method and computer-readable media for locating and presenting relevant documents in response to a search query. Classification tags are assigned to electronic documents. Information is extracted from the documents. In response to a user search query, a set of relevant documents is identified, and an intent is derived and assigned to the search query. A presentation is generated for presenting the relevant documents. The presentation includes information extracted from the relevant documents. The presented information is formatted in accordance with a format associated with the assigned intent.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon to perform a method for providing search results to a user, said method comprising:

generating displayable information including a search result responsive to a user search input, wherein the displayable information is formed by including elements of information extracted from documents corresponding to the search result, wherein at least a portion of said elements of information are associated with at least one of a plurality of intents;

receiving a user selection of one of said elements of information; and

using the intent associated with the selected element of information to generate revised displayable information including refined search results, wherein the revised displayable information is formed by elements of information extracted from said documents and identified as relevant to said intent associated with the selected element of information.

2. The media of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of said documents are web pages.

3. The media of claim 2, wherein said documents are stored by a search engine.

4. The media of claim 3, wherein said method further comprises assigning one or more classification tags to at least a portion of said documents, wherein said one or more classification tags indicate at least one of said plurality of intents.

5. The media of claim 4, wherein said method further comprises storing in a data store said documents along with said one or more classification tags and at least a portion of said elements of information extracted from documents.

6. The media of claim 5, wherein said method further comprises accessing said data store to generate said displayable information.

7. The media of claim 1, wherein said method further comprises re-ranking said documents in response to said user selection.

8. The media of claim 1, wherein said re-ranking selects said documents identified as relevant to said intent associated with the selected element of information.

9. A system for locating and presenting relevant documents to a user, comprising:

a page classifier configured to assign one or more classification tags to at least a portion of one or more documents, wherein said one or more classification tags indicate at least one of a plurality of intents;

an entity extractor for extracting information from at least a portion of said one or more documents, wherein said extracted information is selected in accordance with one or more information formats associated with at least one of said plurality of intents;

a search component for selecting a set of documents from said one or more documents in response to a search query;

an intent determination component configured to determine an intent from said plurality of intents for assignment to said search query; and

a presentation component configured to generate a presentation that displays at least a portion of said set of documents that include a classification tag indicating the determined intent, wherein said presentation includes at least a portion of said information extracted from the displayed documents and formatted in accordance with the information format associated with said determined intent.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein said entity extractor is further configured to separate HTML and meta information from at least a portion of said one or more documents.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein said system further comprises an index for storing said one or more classification tags and said extracted information along with said one or more documents.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said search component is configured to access said index in response to said search query.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein said presentation component is further configured to utilize said determined intent in selecting one or more advertisements for display in said presentation.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein said intent determination component selects said determined intent in response to user selection of a visual element associated with said determined intent.

15. One or more computer-readable media having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon to perform a method for presenting search results relevant to a search input, said method comprising:

identifying a plurality of documents responsive to said search input, wherein at least a portion of said plurality of documents include one or more classification tags indicating at least one of a plurality of intents;

transmitting to a user information a display including a plurality of visual elements, wherein at least a portion of said visual elements are associated with at least one of said plurality of intents;

receiving a user selection of one of said plurality of visual elements;

assigning one of said plurality of intents associated with the selected visual element to said search input; and

generating search results for presentation to the user by displaying metadata from at least a portion of said plurality of documents, wherein said metadata is generated in accordance with said assigned intent.

16. The media of claim 15, wherein said search input is a user query to an Internet search engine.

17. The media of claim 15, wherein at least a portion of said plurality of visual elements indicate actions associated with one or more of said plurality of intents.

18. The media of claim 15, wherein said generating includes targeting advertisements by utilizing said assigned intent.

19. The media of claim 15, wherein said method further comprises refining said search results in response to one or more user inputs indicating an intent of said user.

20. The media of claim 15, wherein at least a portion of said plurality of intents is selected from the group consisting of a shopping intent and a research intent.