QUERY SUGGESTIONS FOR NO RESULT WEB SEARCHES

• US 20090094221A1
• Filed: 10/04/2007
• Published: 04/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: CAMERON, MICHAEL, WILLIAMS, HUGH
• Granted Patent: US 8,583,670 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence

Abstract

Presenting one or more suggested search-engine queries based on an initial search-engine query is described herein. Once the initial query is received, a search engine determines whether any web content is relevant thereto. If not, a query-suggestion service determines whether any suggested queries can be substituted for the initial query. If not, the query is spell-corrected, if necessary, and parsed into individual terms. Each parsed term is then checked to see whether it can be associated with alternative search terms. Terms than can are combined and their combination is also checked for alternative search terms. All of the alternative search terms are scored and then assembled into a list of suggested search terms that is presented to the user.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media computer-executable instructions for performing steps to present one or more suggested search-engine queries based on an initial search-engine query, comprising:

receiving the initial search-engine query;

determining whether one or more suggested query terms are associated with the initial search-engine query;

if no suggested query terms are associated with the initial search- engine query, parsing the initial search-engine query into one or more terms;

determining whether one or more suggested terms are associated with the one or more terms;

scoring the one or more suggested terms; and

and presenting the one or more search-engine queries, wherein the one or more search-engine queries comprise a portion of the one or more suggested terms.

2. The media of claim 1 wherein scoring the one or more suggested terms further comprises adding a value assigned to the one or more suggested terms with a value assigned to the one or more terms.

3. The media of claim 1 further comprising determining whether the one or more terms contains at least one of a misspelling or a typographical error.

4. The media of claim 1 further comprising correcting the at least one of the misspelling or the typographical error.

5. The media of claim 1 further comprising ranking the one or more suggested terms based on one or more parameters.

6. The media of claim 5 wherein the one or more parameters include an indication of the frequency that a users have historically associated the one more terms with the one more suggested terms.

7. The media of claim 5 wherein the one or more parameters include an indication of the geographic location of a user.

8. The media of claim 1 further comprising determining a score that is based, in part, on the number of characters of the one or more search terms.

9. The media of claim 1 further comprising determining a score that is based, in part, on the position of the one or more search terms in the initial search-engine query.

10. The media of claim 1, wherein the one or more suggested query terms are associated with web content that relates to the initial search-engine query.

11. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions for performing steps to present one or more suggested search-engine queries based on an initial search-engine query, comprising:

parsing the initial search-engine query into one or more terms;

receiving one or more suggested terms associated with each of the one or more terms;

assigning a score to each of the one or more suggested terms, wherein the score comprises a first parameter associated with the one or more the one or more suggested terms and a second parameter associated with the one or more terms;

determining the most likely suggested terms to present a user based on the score of each of the one or more suggested terms; and

presenting the most likely suggested terms.

12. The media of claim 11 wherein determining the most likely suggested terms to present a user based on the score of each of the one or more suggested terms further comprises scoring the one or more suggested terms.

13. The media of claim 11 further comprising determining whether the one or more terms contains at least one of a misspelling or a typographical error.

14. The media of claim 11 further comprising correcting the at least one of the misspelling or the typographical error.

15. The media of claim 11 further comprising ranking the one or more suggested terms based on one or more parameters.

16. The media of claim 11 further comprising determining a score that is based, in part, on the number of characters of the one or more search terms.

17. The media of claim 11 further comprising determining a score that is based, in part, on the position of the one or more search terms in the initial search-engine query.

19. The media of claim 11, further comprising a spell checker component configured for correcting a misspelling or a typographical error in the one or more terms.

20. The media of claim 11, further comprising a search configured for determining whether web content is relevant to the initial search-engine query.

18. One or more computer-readable media embodied on one or more computer-storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon for performing a method of presenting one or more suggested search-engine queries based on an initial search-engine query, comprising:

a query-suggestion service component configured for determining whether one or more terms of a search-engine query is associated with one or more query suggestions; and

a query application component configured for;

parsing the initial query into one or more terms,

transmitting the one or more terms to the query-suggestion service component,

scoring the one or more query suggestions based, in part, on a value associated with the one or more query suggestions and, in part, on a parameter associated with the one or more terms,

aggregating one more scores associated with the one or more query suggestions,

based on the one or more scores, assembling the one or more suggested search-engine queries, and

determining which of the one or more suggested search-engine queries to present.