Method and apparatus for performing a tone-based search

• US 20080021875A1
• Filed: 07/19/2006
• Published: 01/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Inventors: Henderson, Kenneth
• Application Number:
  US11/489,315
• Publication Number:
  US 20080021875A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis

Abstract

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for performing a tone-based search. During operation, the system receives a search-request, which includes a search request-term. For each context-term in a pre-defined list of context-terms, the system, in response to receiving the search-term, searches a first set of documents for the context-term and the search-term, wherein each context-term is associated with a tone. Next, the system obtains a list of search results from the search, and for each search result in the list of search results, the system assigns a score. Then, for each search result in the list of search results, the system creates a link which points to the locations in a document of an occurrence of the search-term, and an occurrence of a context-term.

Claims

1. A method for performing a tone-based search, comprising:

receiving a search-request, which includes a search-term;

for each context-term in a pre-defined list of context-terms, searching a first set of documents for the context-term and the search-term, wherein each context-term is associated with a tone;

obtaining a list of search results from the search; and

for each search result in the list of search results;

assigning a score to the search result, and

creating a link which points to the location in a document of an occurrence of the search-term and an occurrence of a context-term.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the tone can be a positive tone, a negative tone, or a neutral tone.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the search-request involves:

receiving a tone-request, which is a request to search for terms that have a specific tone; and

wherein searching the first set of documents involves searching for context-terms having the specific tone associated with the tone-request.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating the score for a search result based on at least one of:

a tone associated with each context-term;

a frequency of each context-term;

a relative location of each context-term with respect to the search-term;

or

a relative location of each context-term with respect to other context-terms in the pre-defined list of context-terms.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein prior to receiving a search-request, the method further comprises:

for each document in a second set of documents;

searching for a set of context-terms from the pre-defined list of context-terms; and

determining a tone-rating for the document based on context-terms identified in the document, wherein the tone-rating can be positive, negative, or neutral.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first set of documents is a subset of the second set of documents.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving a tone-request;

matching the tone-request to the tone-rating of each document in the second set of documents; and

if the tone-request matches the tone-rating of a document in the second set of documents, identifying the document as a member of the first set of documents.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein in response to activating a link for a search result, the method further comprises:

following the link to a document which includes an occurrence of the search-term and an occurrence of the context-term in the document; and

presenting the document to a user.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the tone-rating can be based on at least one of:

a tone associated with each context-term in the document;

a frequency of each context-term in the document;

or

a relative location of each context-term with respect to other context-terms in the document.

10. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method for performing a tone-based search, the method comprising:

receiving a search-request, which includes a search-term;

for each context-term in a pre-defined list of context-terms, searching a first set of documents for the context-term and the search-term, wherein each context-term is associated with a tone;

obtaining a list of search results from the search; and

for each search result in the list of search results;

assigning a score to the search result, and

creating a link which points to the location in a document of an occurrence of the search-term and an occurrence of a context-term.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the tone can be a positive tone, a negative tone, or a neutral tone.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein receiving the search-request involves:

receiving a tone-request, which is a request to search for terms that have a specific tone; and

wherein searching the first set of documents involves searching for context-terms having the specific tone associated with the tone-request.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, the method further comprising calculating the score for a search result based on at least one of:

a tone associated with each context-term;

a frequency of each context-term;

a relative location of each context-term with respect to the search-term;

or

a relative location of each context-term with respect to other context-terms in the pre-defined list of context-terms.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein prior to receiving a search-request, the method further comprises:

for each document in a second set of documents;

searching for a set of context-terms from the pre-defined list of context-terms; and

determining a tone-rating for the document based on context-terms identified in the document, wherein the tone-rating can be positive, negative, or neutral.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the first set of documents is a subset of the second set of documents.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, the method further comprising:

receiving a tone-request;

matching the tone-request to the tone-rating of each document in the second set of documents; and

if the tone-request matches the tone-rating of a document in the second set of documents, identifying the document as a member of the first set of documents.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein in response to activating a link for a search result, the method further comprises:

following the link to a document which includes an occurrence of the search-term and an occurrence of the context-term in the document; and

presenting the document to a user.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the tone-rating can be based on at least one of:

a tone associated with each context-term in the document;

a frequency of each context-term in the document;

or

a relative location of each context-term with respect to other context-terms in the document.

19. An apparatus that performs a tone-based search, comprising:

a receiving mechanism configured to receive a search-request, which includes a search-term;

a first searching mechanism configured to search a first set of documents for a context-term and the search-term, wherein each context-term is associated with a tone, and wherein each context-term is a member of a pre-defined list of context-terms;

an obtaining mechanism configured to obtain a list of search results from the search;

an assigning mechanism configured to assign a score to each search result in the list of search results; and

a creating mechanism configured to create a link which points to the location in a document of an occurrence of the search-term and an occurrence of a context-term for each search result in the list of search results.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the receiving mechanism is further configured to receive a tone-request, which is a request to search for terms that have a specific tone, and wherein the searching mechanism is further configured to search the first set of documents for context-terms having the specific tone associated with the tone-request.

21. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising a calculating mechanism configured to calculate the score for a search result based on at least one of:

a tone associated with each context-term;

a frequency of each context-term;

a relative location of each context-term with respect to the search-term;

or

a relative location of each context-term with respect to other context-terms in the pre-defined list of context-terms.

22. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising:

a second searching mechanism configured to search each document in a second set of documents for a set of context-terms from the pre-defined list of context-terms; and

a determining mechanism configured to determine a tone-rating for each document in a set of documents based on context-terms identified in the document, wherein the tone-rating can be positive, negative, or neutral.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the receiving mechanism is configured to receive a tone-request, the apparatus further comprising:

a matching mechanism configured to match the tone-request to the tone-rating of each document in the second set of documents; and

an identifying mechanism configured to identify a document as a member of the first set of documents, if the tone-request matches the tone-rating of the document.

24. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising an activation mechanism configured to activate a link for a search result by:

following the link to a document which includes an occurrence of the search-term and an occurrence of the context-term in the document; and

presenting the document to a user.