TEMPORAL RANKING OF SEARCH RESULTS

• US 20080027921A1
• Filed: 07/31/2006
• Published: 01/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chandrasekar, Raman, Forney, Michael K., Slawson, Dean A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,849,079 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries

Abstract

An information dissemination system ranks the search results based on a temporal weight assigned to each search result. The temporal weight is an indication of the importance to a user that varies with time. For each search result, the information dissemination system calculates a temporal weight that is based on the temporal proximity of the event that is related to the search result. The temporal weight may be used to re-rank the search results.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for calculating a temporal weight for a search result, the method comprising:

identifying a user event corresponding to a search result, the user event having an event start time, an event end time, and an event duration;

determining a current time; and

determining a temporal weight for the search result based on a temporal proximity of the current time to the user event.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the temporal weight varies with time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the temporal weight increases as the current time approaches the event start time.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the increase is exponential.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the temporal weight is constant during the event duration.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the temporal weight during the event duration is at least the temporal weight at the event start time.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the temporal weight peaks at a time during the duration of the event.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the temporal weight peaks at a time half way through the duration of the event.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the temporal weight decreases as the current time moves away from the event end time.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the decrease is exponential.

11. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer system to temporally rank search results, by a method comprising:

for each search result,

identifying a user event corresponding to a search result; and

determining a temporal weight for the search result based on a temporal proximity of user event; and

ranking the search results based on the temporal weights corresponding to the search results.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the temporal weight of the search result is also based on a weight factor.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the weight factor is based on duration of the user event.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the weight factor is based on importance of the user event.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the weight factor varies from prior to the user event, during the user event, and after the user event.

16. A computer system for calculating a temporal weight for a search result, comprising:

a component that identifies a user event corresponding to a search result, the user event having an event start time, an event end time, and an event duration; and

a component that determines a temporal weight for the search result based on a temporal proximity of the user event.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the temporal weight of the search result is also based on duration of the user event.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the temporal weight of the search result is also based on importance of the user event.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the temporal weight of the search result exponentially increases as a current time approaches a start time of the user event.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the temporal weight of the search result exponentially decreases as a current time moves away from an end time of the user event.