REAL TIME IMPLICIT USER MODELING FOR PERSONALIZED SEARCH

• US 20080114751A1
• Filed: 05/01/2007
• Published: 05/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Board of Trustees of The University of Illinois, Surf Canyon Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Surf Canyon Incorporated
• Inventors: Zhai, ChengXiang, Shen, Xuehua, Tan, Bin, Cramer, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 8,442,973 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

A method and apparatus for utilizing user behavior to immediately modify sets of search results so that the most relevant documents are moved to the top. In one embodiment of the invention, behavior data, which can come from virtually any activity, is used to infer the user'"'"'s intent. The updated inferred implicit user model is then exploited immediately by re-ranking the set of matched documents to best reflect the information need of the user. The system updates the user model and immediately re-ranks documents at every opportunity in order to constantly provide the most optimal results. In another embodiment, the system determines, based on the similarity of results sets, if the current query belongs in the same information session as one or more previous queries. If so, the current query is expanded with additional keywords in order to improve the targeting of the results.

Claims

1. A method for dynamically modifying search results comprising:

receiving one or more keywords for use as search terms from a user;

providing a first set of search result objects;

monitoring user behavior in interacting with said search result objects; and

generating a second set of search result objects based on said user behavior.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing some title and display text with each of said search result objects in said first set;

monitoring which of said objects is selected by said user;

using terms from the title and display text corresponding to a selected object as subordinate keywords for generating said second set of search result objects.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

selecting subordinate keywords from at least one of the links clicked on by the user, other links associated with a document including links pointing to the document, descriptive text associated with each document in the search results, meta-tags connected to viewed documents, prominent words and phrases in viewed documents and a thesaurus.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein said second set of search result objects comprises a re-ranked version of at least a portion of said first set of search result objects.

5. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

using terms from the title and display text corresponding to objects skipped by a user as negative subordinate keywords; and

reducing the ranking of search results objects containing said negative subordinate keywords.

6. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

assigning weights to said subordinate keywords, such that search result objects having higher weighted subordinate keywords are ranked higher.

7. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

providing a user interface allowing a user to promote selected subordinate keywords such that they have a higher weighting or are used as primary keywords to generate new search results.

8. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

providing a user interface allowing a user to delete selected subordinate keywords.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said providing a first set of search result objects is performed by a separate search engine software program from a user behavior program that performs said monitoring and generating steps.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said monitoring user behavior includes at least one of:

clicks on links in the search results;

subsequent clicks on links within documents;

dwelling times;

time spent looking at documents from specific domains;

resources accessed;

transactions conducted;

purchases made;

orders placed;

sessions created;

documents downloaded;

cursors moved;

pages or text scrolled; and

images or other information highlighted.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

returning to said first set of search result objects, after displaying said second set of search result objects, in response to a user indication to return.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

rating the usefulness of at least one of said search result objects in response to a user rating input.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing a display indication of the ranking movement of said search result objects in said second set of search result objects.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein said one or more keywords are a first query, and further comprising:

receiving a second query of one or more keywords from said user;

generating a third set of search result objects;

comparing said third set of search result objects to one of said first and second sets of search result objects to determine a correlation; and

providing a modified third set of search result objects to said user based on said correlation.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein said correlation comprises a similarity between keywords in said first and second query.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein said correlation comprises a similarity between said sets of search result objects.

21. The method of claim 18 wherein said correlation comprises a similarity in text in said search result objects.

22. The method of claim 18 wherein said modified third set of search result objects is produced using keywords or other important terms from both said first and second queries.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein user behavior data is created by said monitoring step and is stored only on said user'"'"'s computer.

14. A system for dynamically modifying search results comprising:

a user interface on a first computer configured to receive one or more keywords for use as search terms from a user;

a search engine on a server in communication with said first computer over a network, said search engine being configured to provide a first set of search result objects in response to said keywords;

a monitoring program in communication with said network, said monitoring program being configured to monitor user behavior in interacting with said search result objects; and

a re-ranking program configured to generate a second set of search result objects based on said user behavior.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein said search engine is on a first server, and said monitoring and re-ranking programs are on a second server.

16. Computer readable media having computer readable code thereon for dynamically modifying search results, comprising code for:

receiving one or more keywords for use as search terms from a user;

providing a first set of search result objects;

monitoring user behavior in interacting with said search result objects; and

generating a second set of search result objects based on said user behavior.

17. A method for ranking a set of search results having an initial ranking, comprising:

determining one or more selected objects in said set of search results which corresponds to user interest based on user behavior;

selecting at least one subordinate keyword corresponding to said selected objects; and

re-ranking said set of search results based on said at least one subordinate keyword.