Using anchor text to provide context

• US 20080071739A1
• Filed: 09/15/2006
• Published: 03/20/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Clarke, Charles Lester Alexander, Kumar, Girish, Sareen, Gaurav, Wang, Junhua, Gupta, Namita
• Granted Patent: US 8,458,207 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

A search engine can provide referencing information as context for a particular search result when an excerpt from the search result, comprising at least some similar elements to the user'"'"'s query, is not generated. Referencing information can include one or more anchor texts having similarity to at least some elements of the user'"'"'s query, the anchor texts being used by referencing pages to link to the page returned as a search result. User selection of the anchor text can enable the user to visit a referencing page using that anchor text to link to the page returned as a search result, and having a high static rank.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions for providing search results, the computer-executable instructions directed to steps comprising:

receiving a search string;

identifying pages relevant to the search string;

providing links to the identified pages; and

providing referencing information for the at least one of the identified pages, the referencing information comprising a first anchor text used by another page to link to the at least one of the identified pages, wherein the first anchor text is relevant to the search string.

2. The computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the referencing information further comprises a link to at least one referencing page using the first anchor text to link to the at least one of the identified pages.

3. The computer-readable media of claim 2 comprising further computer-executable instructions directed to selecting the at least one referencing page based in part on a static rank of one or more referencing pages, the one or more referencing pages using the first anchor text to link to the at least one of the identified pages.

4. The computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the referencing information further comprises a second anchor text used by another page to link to the at least one of the identified pages, wherein the second anchor text is different from the first anchor text, and wherein the second anchor text is relevant to the search string.

5. The computer-readable media of claim 1 comprising further computer-executable instructions directed to selecting the first anchor text from among multiple anchor text wordings based in part on similarity between the first anchor text and the search string.

6. The computer-readable media of claim 1 comprising further computer-executable instructions directed to selecting the first anchor text from among multiple anchor text wordings based in part on a static rank of one or more referencing pages, the one or more referencing pages using the first anchor text to link to the at least one of the identified pages.

7. The computer-readable media of claim 1 comprising further computer-executable instructions directed to selecting the first anchor text from among multiple anchor text wordings based in part on similarity between the search string and a combination of elements present in the at least one of the identified pages and elements present in the first anchor text.

8. The computer-readable media of claim 1 comprising further computer-executable instructions directed to providing a query-independent snippet for the at least one of the identified pages if the at least one of the identified pages does not comprise elements contained in the search string in a snippetizable format, wherein the query-independent snippet identifies the at least one of the identified pages.

9. A method of delivering search results comprising:

providing links to pages deemed relevant to a search string; and

providing referencing information for at least one of the relevant pages, the referencing information comprising a first anchor text used by another page to link to the at least one of the relevant pages, wherein the first anchor text is relevant to the search string.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the referencing information further comprises a link to at least one referencing page using the first anchor text to link to the at least one of the relevant pages.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one referencing page has a higher static rank than any other known referencing page that uses the first anchor text to link to the at least one of the relevant pages.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the referencing information further comprises a second anchor text used by another page to link to the at least one of the relevant pages, wherein the second anchor text is different from the first anchor text, and wherein the second anchor text is relevant to the search string.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the first anchor text is selected from among multiple anchor text wordings based in part on similarity between the first anchor text, the search string elements in the at least one of the identified pages.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein the first anchor text is selected from among multiple anchor text wordings based in part on a static rank of one or more referencing pages, the one or more referencing pages using the first anchor text to link to the at least one of the relevant pages.

15. The method of claim 9 wherein the first anchor text is selected from among multiple anchor text wordings, wherein the multiple anchor text wordings were previously stored with the at least one of the relevant pages, and wherein the multiple anchor text wordings were selected based in part on a static rank of one or more referencing pages, the one or more referencing pages using the multiple anchor text wordings to link to the at least one of the relevant pages.

16. The method of claim 9 wherein the first anchor text is selected from among multiple anchor text wordings, wherein the multiple anchor text wordings were previously stored with the at least one of the relevant pages, and wherein the multiple anchor text wordings were selected based in part on a frequency of usage of the multiple anchor text wordings by the one or more referencing pages to link to the at least one of the relevant pages.

17. A search result page for presentation to a user in response to a user-entered query, the search result page comprising:

links to pages deemed relevant to the user-entered query; and

referencing information for at least one of the relevant pages, the referencing information comprising a first anchor text used by another page to link to the at least one of the relevant pages, wherein the first anchor text is relevant to the user-entered query.

18. The page of claim 17, wherein the referencing information further comprises a link to at least one referencing page using the first anchor text to link to the at least one of the relevant pages.

19. The page of claim 18, wherein the referencing information further comprises a referencing page snippet for the at least one referencing page, the referencing page snippet comprising at least one element contained in the user-entered query.

20. The page of claim 17, wherein the referencing information further comprises a second anchor text used by another page to link to the at least one of the relevant pages, wherein the second anchor text is different from the first anchor text, and wherein the second anchor text is relevant to the user-entered query.