METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING SEARCH REQUESTS

• US 20090254536A1
• Filed: 04/03/2008
• Published: 10/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Sundaresan, Neelakantan, Gu, Huaping
• Granted Patent: US 8,112,431 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24534 Query rewriting; Transformation

Abstract

Methods and system for processing search requests are described. In one embodiment, a term of a search request may be received. A determination of whether the term is a meta-keyword may be made. One or more linguistically transformed keywords associated with the meta-keyword may be obtained. A search may be run on at least one of the one or more linguistically transformed keywords to obtain a result of the search.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a term of a search request;

identifying the term as a meta-keyword, the meta-keyword having a is-a relationship with one or more different words;

obtaining a linguistically transformed keyword associated with the meta-keyword;

performing a search using the linguistically transformed keyword to obtain a result.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining comprises:

receiving the linguistically transformed keyword associated with the meta-keyword from a keyword provider.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining comprises:

accessing a plurality of prior user search patterns;

analyzing the plurality of prior user search patterns to identify the linguistically transformed keyword.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the performing the search comprises:

performing the search using at least one of the linguistically transformed keyword and the term.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing the result of performing the search for presentation.

6. The method of claim 5, including obtaining a plurality of linguistically transformed keywords associated with the meta-keyword, and wherein the result is provided in a plurality of tabbed pages, a particular tabbed page of the plurality of tabbed pages including a particular linguistically transformed keyword of the plurality of linguistically transformed keywords.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing an initial search using the term; and

providing the initial result of the performing of the initial search for presentation.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

providing the linguistically transformed keyword for presentation, the initial result provided simultaneously with linguistically transformed keyword.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing the linguistically transformed keyword for presentation;

receiving a keyword selection from the linguistically transformed keyword, the keyword selection including the at least one of the linguistically transformed keyword on which the search is run,

wherein the performing of the search is responsive to the receiving of the keyword selection.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining a plurality of linguistically transformed keywords associated with the meta-keyword; and

identifying a-selected keyword among the plurality of linguistically transformed keywords,

wherein the performing of the search uses the pre-selected keyword.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the linguistically transformed keyword comprises at least one of a hyponym keyword, a hypernym keyword, a meronym keyword, a holonym keyword, a derived keyword, a sounds-like keyword, or combinations thereof.

12. A method comprising:

identifying a term of a search request as a meta keyword, the meta-keyword having a is-a relationship with one or more different words;

obtaining a plurality of keywords associated with the meta-keyword;

providing the plurality of keywords for presentation;

receiving a keyword selection from the plurality of keywords;

performing a search using the keyword selection to obtain a result.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the identifying comprises:

determining whether the term matches the meta-keyword on a list including a plurality of meta-keywords.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the identifying comprises:

accessing a plurality of prior user search patterns;

analyzing the plurality of prior user search patterns to identify the plurality of meta-keywords.

15. The method of claim 12, comprising:

providing the result of the performing of the search to an application.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

performing an initial search on the term to generate an initial result.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

analyzing the initial result,

wherein the identifying is responsive to the analyzing of the initial result.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

identifying a pre-selected keyword among the plurality of keywords,

wherein the providing of the plurality of keywords is responsive to the identifying of the plurality of pre-selected keywords.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the search is a title search.

20. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions, which when implemented by one or more processors perform the following operations:

receive a term of a search request;

determine whether the term is a meta-keyword, the meta-keyword having a is-a relationship with one or more different words;

obtain one or more linguistically transformed keywords associated with the meta-keyword;

run a search on at least one of the one or more linguistically transformed keywords to obtain a result.

21. The machine-readable medium of claim 20 further comprising instructions, which when implemented by one or more processors perform the following operations:

provide the one or more linguistically transformed keywords for presentation.

22. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions, which when implemented by one or more processors perform the following operations:

receive a term of a search request;

determine whether the term is a meta-keyword, the meta-keyword having a is-a relationship with one or more different words;

obtain one or more keywords associated with the meta-keyword;

provide the one or more keywords for presentation;

receive a keyword selection of the one or more keywords; and

run a search on the keyword selection to obtain a result.

23. The machine-readable medium of claim 22 further comprising instructions, which when implemented by one or more processors perform the following operations:

identify one or more pre-selected keywords among the keywords,

wherein providing the one or more keywords is responsive to identification of the one or more pre-selected keywords.

24. A system comprising:

a term receiver module to receive a term of a search request;

a meta-keyword determination module to determine whether the term received by the term receiver is a meta-keyword, the meta-keyword having a is-a relationship with one or more different words;

a keyword obtaining module to obtain one or more linguistically transformed keywords associated with the meta-keyword;

a keyword search module to run a search on at least one of the one or more linguistically transformed keywords obtained by the keyword obtaining module to obtain a result.