Temporal Search Query Personalization

• US 20080010253A1
• Filed: 11/13/2006
• Published: 01/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL LLC (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chowdhury, Abdur R., Sidhu, Kulraj
• Granted Patent: US 7,716,236 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2428 Query predicate definition using graphical user interfaces, including menus and forms G06F16/2423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

A user is made able to configure a search query to be responsive to temporal factors in order to adjust the search query to more accurately reflect the user'"'"'s true information need. By adjusting the search query in this way, the user is more likely to receive satisfactory search results.

Claims

1. A method of providing search results to a user, the method comprising:

receiving a search query from a user;

determining a time component to be associated with the search query;

accessing a time-oriented profile including information about monitored browsing behaviors;

identifying a subset of information from within the time-oriented profile based on the time component associated with the received search query;

relating the search query to the subset of information identified from within the time-oriented profile; and

based on the results of relating, providing the user with search results that account for one or more of the monitored browsing behaviors within the subset of the information identified from within the time-oriented profile.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, based on the results of the relating, adjusting the search query to include information associated with the time component and included in the time-oriented profile.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the search results are responsive to the adjusted search query.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the search results include temporally-based search results that are responsive to the adjusted search query and temporally-independent search results that are responsive to the search query as provided by the user.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the search results are provided to the user such that the user can perceive a difference between the temporally-based search results and the temporally-independent search results.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the search results are provided to the user such that the user cannot perceive a difference between the temporally-based search results and the temporally-independent search results.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the time component includes enabling the user to specify a time component.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

recommending a time component to the user based on a time frame during which the user'"'"'s browsing behaviors were related to the search query; and

enabling the user to select the recommended time component.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the time component includes:

identifying a time component based on a time frame during which the user'"'"'s browsing behaviors were related to the search query, and

automatically selecting the identified time component

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

advising the user of the automatically selected time component; and

enabling the user to reject the automatically selected time component.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the information related to the monitored browsing behaviors includes information related to content accessed by the user as part of the monitored browsing behaviors, a classification of the information, and a time indication of when the user performed the activity related to the information.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the information, classification and time indication are stored within the time-oriented profile for a predetermined amount of time.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating a feature vector for documents accessed by the user during the browsing.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein a feature vector for a document includes at least one of information related to words appearing in the document based on their relative frequency of occurrence within the document, an indication of a time frame during which the document had been accessed by the user, a length of the document, an indication of where the document is stored and accessed from, an indication of how much useful information the document includes, and a classification related to the document.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising generating and storing a temporal session feature vector based on at least one feature vector formed for at least one document accessed by the user prior to receipt of the search query.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the temporal session feature vector includes, with respect to the accessed documents, at least one of words appearing in the documents based on a relative frequency of occurrence of the words within the documents, classifications related to the documents or the words, a time indication related to when the user accessed the documents that include the words and/or classifications.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the temporal session feature vector includes an indication of a weight associated with at least one the words or classifications.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein relating the search query to the subset of information identified from within the time-oriented profile includes determining if a feature vector associated with the search query is similar to information included in the temporal session feature vector that is associated with the time component.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the feature vector associated with the search query includes at least one of the full query, an indication of a time at which the query was received, whether the query was entered into a specialized search engine interface, and potential classifications related to the query.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein information in the temporal session feature vector is associated with the time component if the information was included in, or associated with, a document accessed by the user within a time frame that satisfies the time component.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the search results are provided based on processing by a third party plug-in.

22. A computer program product for providing search results to a user, the computer program product including instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive a search query from a user;

determine a time component to be associated with the search query;

access a time-oriented profile including information about monitored browsing behaviors;

identify a subset of information from within the time-oriented profile based on the time component associated with the received search query;

relate the search query to the subset of information identified from within the time-oriented profile; and

based on the results of relating, provide the user with search results that account for one or more of the monitored browsing behaviors within the subset of the information identified from within the time-oriented profile.

23. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the search results include temporally-based search results that are responsive to the adjusted search query and temporally-independent search results that are responsive to the search query as provided by the user.

24. The computer program product of claim 23 wherein the search results are provided to the user such that the user can perceive a difference between the temporally-based search results and the temporally-independent search results.

25. The computer program product of claim 23 wherein the search results are provided to the user such that the user cannot perceive a difference between the temporally-based search results and the temporally-independent search results.

26. A system for providing search results to the user, the system comprising:

means for receiving a search query from a user;

means for determining a time component to be associated with the search query;

means for accessing a time-oriented profile including information about monitored browsing behaviors;

means for identifying a subset of information from within the time-oriented profile based on the time component associated with the received search query;

means for relating the search query to the subset of information identified from within the time-oriented profile; and

based on the results of relating, means for providing the user with search results that account for one or more of the monitored browsing behaviors within the subset of the information identified from within the time-oriented profile.