PREDICTION OF INFORMATIONAL INTERESTS

• US 20090187540A1
• Filed: 01/22/2008
• Published: 07/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Rounthwaite, Robert L., Mihalkova, Lilyana Simeonova, Richardson, Matthew, Bilenko, Mikhail
• Application Number:
  US12/017,346
• Publication Number:
  US 20090187540A1
• 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

Described herein is a system that includes a receiver component that receives an indication that a user has accessed a search engine to initiate a search session. An analyzer component predicts informational interests of the user upon receipt of the indication and outputs an informational item that corresponds to the predicted informational interests of the user, wherein the analyzer component is configured to output the informational item prior to the user issuing a query to the search engine.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system, comprising:

a receiver component that receives an indication that a user has accessed a search engine to initiate a search session; and

an analyzer component that predicts informational interests of the user upon receipt of the indication and outputs an informational item that corresponds to the predicted informational interests of the user, wherein the analyzer component is configured to output the informational item prior to the user issuing a query to the search engine.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the informational item is a query.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the analyzer component outputs multiple queries that are reflective of the informational interests of the user and assigns values to the multiple queries, wherein the values are indicative of a probability that the user is interested in information that is retrievable by way of the queries.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a display component that displays the informational item to the user on a homepage of the search engine.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the informational item is displayed as a selectable hyperlink.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a training component that receives collected data and trains the analyzer component using the user history data.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the analyzer component comprises:

a first predictor component that uses historical data of a plurality of users to predict the informational interests of the user;

a second predictor component that uses historical data of the user to predict the informational interests of the user; and

a third predictor component that uses historical data of a plurality of users that have a substantially similar profile of the user to predict the informational interests of the user, wherein the analyzer component uses predictions from the first predictor component, the second predictor component, and the third predictor component to output the informational item.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the analyzer component predicts future informational interests of the user.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a query receiver component that receives a query from the user, wherein the analyzer component provides a query suggestion based at least in part upon the received query and predicted informational interests of the user.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the search engine is one of an Internet search engine, a desktop search engine, and a database search tool.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the analyzer component includes a relational model.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an interface component that receives user input with respect to the search engine;

a data collector component that collects data pertaining to the received user input; and

a training component that trains the analyzer component based at least in part upon data collected by the data collector component.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the output informational item pertains to informational interests of the user in the future, the system further comprising:

a storage component that stores the informational item and a time in the future that corresponds to the information interests of the user; and

a display component that displays the query at the time in the future.

14. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving an indication that a user has initiated a search session using a search engine; and

displaying an informational item to the user prior to the user issuing a query to the search engine, wherein the informational item corresponds to predicted informational interests of the user.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the informational item is a query, and further comprising:

receiving an indication that the query has been selected by the user; and

displaying search results that correspond to the selected query.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

collecting data pertaining to selection of the query and corresponding search results; and

using the collected data to predict informational interests of the user.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the displayed informational item is a selectable hyperlink.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising displaying a plurality of informational items prior to the user issuing a query to the search engine.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the search engine is an Internet search engine.

20. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform the following acts:

receiving an indication that a user desires to view a graphical user interface that includes a query field, wherein a query submitted by way of the query field initiates a search of indexed items over the Internet;

using a machine learned model to predict at least one informational interest of the user;

generating a query that corresponds to search results that pertain to the informational interest of the user; and

displaying the query to the user prior to the user submitting a query by way of the query field.