Methods for enhancing digital search results based on task-oriented user activity

• US 20090157653A1
• Filed: 12/12/2007
• Published: 06/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: DECHO Corporation (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Forbes, John B., Dietterich, Thomas G., Herlocker, Jonathan L., Maritz, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 8,126,888 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

Methods for using task-related information to enhance digital searching are provided. A task-oriented user activity system maintains task-related information about resources accessed by a user and current user task. This task-related information is used to enhance search results by filtering and ranking results to increase relevance with respect to a user'"'"'s current task. The task-related information can also be used to include task-related metadata in search engine index, e.g., by storing the metadata in the index or by storing it in resources which are subsequently indexed. Task-related information can also be used to enhance search results by enhancing search queries to include task-related search criteria.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for digital search with task-enhanced search results, the method comprising:

generating a search query based on interaction with a user;

sending the search query to a search engine;

receiving initial search results from the search engine;

using a task-oriented user activity system to predict a current task being performed by a user;

computing task-related information from the predicted current task and from past event records and associated task identifiers stored in a task-oriented user activity system database;

filtering and ranking the initial search results based on the computed task-related metadata to produce enhanced search results; and

presenting the enhanced search results to the user.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, prior to sending the search query to the search engine, transforming the search query to include task-related search criteria.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the current task being performed by the user is predicted at the time the search query is sent to the search engine.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the search engine is a desktop search application.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the search engine is an internet search engine.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the task-related information includes resources associated with the current task.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the task-related information includes resource access information.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the ranking comprises calculating for each resource referenced in the initial search results a likelihood that the resource is associated with the current task being performed by the user.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the ranking comprises calculating for each resource referenced in the initial search results similarity to resources recently accessed by the user.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the ranking comprises calculating for each resource referenced in the initial search results a similarity to resources frequently accessed by the user.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the ranking comprises calculating for each resource referenced in the initial search results a likelihood that the resource has a dataflow connected to resources that are part of the user'"'"'s likely project.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the filtering comprises eliminating a resource referenced in the initial search results if a likelihood that the resource is associated with the current task being performed by the user is below a predetermined threshold.

13. The method of claim 1 comprising calculating a similarity between keywords associated with the current task and words associated with a resource referenced in the initial search results.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising deriving the words associated with the resource referenced in the initial search results by extracting keywords from the resource.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising deriving the words associated with the resource referenced in the initial search results by extracting keywords from metadata associated with the resource.

16. The method of claim 13 further comprising deriving keywords associated with the current task by combining term frequency vectors extracted from all of the resources associated with the task.