SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR KNOWLEDGE BASED SEARCH SYSTEM

• US 20090006354A1
• Filed: 06/26/2007
• Published: 01/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Vandelle, Gilles, Gaillard, Matthieu, Brisbart, Franck
• Granted Patent: US 7,788,284 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

The present invention provides functionality for conducting a knowledge based by finding search results from limited topic domains. According to one embodiment, the method of the present invention includes retrieving the context of a given user and identifying a plurality of characteristics associated with the user'"'"'s context. The one or more characteristics associated with the user'"'"'s context are displayed to the user and the user may select from the displayed characteristics. One or more items of content are retrieved based upon the user'"'"'s selection and presented to the user on the user'"'"'s client device.

Claims

1. A method for performing a knowledge based web search using a keyword graph, the method comprising:

receiving a search request from a user;

conducting a web search in response to the search request;

determining related terms based on results obtained from the web search;

assigning weights onto a keyword graph based on the related terms;

determining main nodes of the weighted keyword graph based on modified keyword graph; and

identifying relevant main topics from the main nodes of the keyword graph;

generating search results based on the relevant main topics.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the graph is a directed acyclic graph.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the related terms from web based query search have qualifying attributes attached thereto.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the nodes of the graph include a term and type representation.

5. The method of claim 1 comprising:

determining relevant main topics by prompting the user for additional input after the user inputs the search request.

6. A method for creating a direct keyword graph, the method comprising:

selecting a unique unused pair of terms from a keyword pool;

calculating relevancy between the terms;

creating a node connection based on the relevancy between the terms; and

repeating for another unique pair of terms until keyword graph is of sufficient size.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the direct keyword graph is further organized into an acyclic graph by arranging the graph into levels.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the keyword pool is a query log.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the keyword pool is a dictionary.

10. Computer readable media comprising program code for execution by a programmable processor to perform a method for performing a knowledge based web search using a keyword graph, the compute readable media comprising:

program code for receiving a search request from a user;

program code for conducting a web search in response to the search request;

program code for determining related terms based on results obtained from the web search;

program code for assigning weights onto a keyword graph based on the related terms;

program code for determining main nodes of the weighted keyword graph based on modified keyword graph;

program code for identifying relevant main topics from the main nodes of the keyword graph; and

program code for generating search results based on the relevant main topics.

11. The computer readable media of claim 10, wherein the graph is a directed acyclic graph.

12. The computer readable media of claim 10, wherein the related terms from web based query search have qualifying attributes attached thereto.

13. The computer readable media of claim 10, wherein the nodes of the graph include a term and type representation.

14. The computer readable media of claim 10 comprising:

program code for determining relevant main topics by prompting the user for additional input after the user inputs the search request.

15. Computer readable media comprising program code for execution by a programmable processor to perform a method for creating a direct keyword graph, the computer readable media comprising:

program code for selecting a unique unused pair of terms from a keyword pool;

program code for calculating relevancy between the terms;

program code for creating a node connection based on the relevancy between the terms; and

program code for repeating for another unique pair of terms until keyword graph is of sufficient size.

16. The computer readable media of claim 15 comprising program code for organizing the direct keyword graph into an acyclic graph by arranging the graph into levels.

17. The computer readable media of claim 15 wherein the keyword pool is a query log.

18. The computer readable media of claim 15 wherein the keyword pool is a dictionary.