DERIVING USER INTENT FROM A USER QUERY

• US 20080114759A1
• Filed: 05/18/2007
• Published: 05/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Srivastava, Utkarsh, Shanmugasundaram, Jayavel, Vee, Erik, Yahia, Sihem Amer
• Granted Patent: US 7,974,976 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/6
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A system and method for deriving user intent from a query. The system includes a query engine, and an advertisement engine. The query engine receives a query from the user. The query engine analyzes the query to determine a query intent that is matched to a domain. The query may be further analyzed to derive predicate values based on the query and the domain hierarchy. The domain and associated information may then be matched to a list of advertisements. The advertisement may be assigned an ad match score based on a correlation between the query information and various listing information provided in the advertisement.

Claims

1. A method for deriving user intent from a query, the method comprising the steps of:

defining a plurality of domains that correspond to a plurality of possible user intents, each domain having a hierarchy of predicates;

receiving a query from the user; and

selecting a domain based on the query and the hierarchy of predicates.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising determining if at least one term in the query matches at least one predicate value of an entry.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising determining a corresponding position in the hierarchy for at least one predicate value.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising determining a value of predicates in the hierarchy located above the corresponding position of the predicate value based on the predicate value and the hierarchy.

5. The method according to claim 3, further comprising determining a value of predicates in the hierarchy located below the corresponding position of the predicate value based on the query and the hierarchy.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising generating an inverted list based on the query.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising determining a list of predicates based on the predicate value.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising generating queries based on the list of predicates.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising combining the plurality of queries.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein combining the plurality of queries includes merging at least two queries of the plurality of queries if no inconsistencies exist between the at least two queries.

11. The method according to claim 9, further comprising performing plurality of queries.

12. The method according to claim 9, further comprising updating query controls based on the plurality of queries.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the query controls are updated based on the consistent predicates between the plurality of queries.

14. A system for generating advertisements for display to a user, the system comprising:

a query engine configured to receive a query from the user, the query engine being configured to identify a domain based on the query; and

an advertisement selection engine in communication with the query engine, the advertisement selection engine selecting a domain based on the query and a hierarchy of predicates for the domain.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the advertisement engine is configured to determine if at least one term in the query matches at least one predicate value of an entry.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the advertisement engine is configured to determine a corresponding position in the hierarchy for at least one predicate value.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the advertisement engine is configured to determine a value of predicates in the hierarchy located above the corresponding position of the predicate value based on the predicate value and the hierarchy.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein the advertisement engine is configured to determine a value of predicates in the hierarchy located below the corresponding position of the predicate value based on the query and the hierarchy.

19. The system according to claim 14, wherein the advertisement engine includes an inverted list generation block configured to generate an inverted list based on the query.

20. The system according to claim 19, wherein the advertisement engine includes a predicate generation block configured to determine a list of predicates based on the query.

21. The system according to claim 20, wherein the advertisement engine includes a query generation block configured to generate queries based on the list of predicates.

22. The system according to claim 21, wherein the advertisement engine includes a query combination block configured to combine the plurality of queries.

23. The system according to claim 22, wherein the query combination block merges at least two queries of the plurality of queries if no inconsistencies exist between the at least two queries.

24. The system according to claim 22, wherein the advertisement engine performs the plurality of queries.

25. The system according to claim 22, wherein the advertisement engine updates query controls based on the plurality of queries.

26. The system according to claim 25, wherein the advertisement engine updates the query controls based on the consistent predicates between the plurality of queries.

27. In a computer readable storage medium having stored therein instructions executable by a programmed processor for deriving user intent from a query, the storage medium comprising instructions for:

defining a plurality of domains that correspond to a plurality of possible user intents, each domain having a hierarchy of predicates;

receiving a query from the user; and

selecting a domain based on the query and the hierarchy of predicates.

28. The computer readable medium according to claim 27, further comprising instructions for determining if at least one term in the query matches at least one predicate value of an entry.

29. The computer readable medium according to claim 28, further comprising instructions for determining a corresponding position in the hierarchy for at least one predicate value.

30. The computer readable medium according to claim 29, further comprising instructions for determining a value of predicates in the hierarchy located above the corresponding position of the predicate value based on the predicate value and the hierarchy.

31. The computer readable medium according to claim 29, further comprising instructions for determining a value of predicates in the hierarchy located below the corresponding position of the predicate value based on the query and the hierarchy.

32. The computer readable medium according to claim 27, further comprising instructions for generating an inverted list based on the query.

33. The computer readable medium according to claim 32, further comprising instructions for determining a list of predicates based on the predicate value.

34. The computer readable medium according to claim 33, further comprising instructions for generating queries based on the list of predicates.

35. The computer readable medium according to claim 34, further comprising instructions for combining the plurality of queries.

36. The computer readable medium according to claim 35, wherein instructions for combining the plurality of queries includes instructions for merging at least two queries of the plurality of queries if no inconsistencies exist between the at least two queries.

37. The computer readable medium according to claim 35, further comprising instructions for performing plurality of queries.

38. The computer readable medium according to claim 35, further comprising instructions for updating query controls based on the plurality of queries.

39. The computer readable medium according to claim 38, wherein the query controls are updated based on the consistent predicates between the plurality of queries.