SEARCHING, SORTING, AND DISPLAYING VIDEO CLIPS AND SOUND FILES BY RELEVANCE
First Claim
1. A method for searching for documents in a documents database, the documents database having a plurality of documents, each document being associated with at least one category of a plurality of categories in a categories database, each category comprising at least one keyword, the method comprising:
- receiving a search request from a user, the search request having at least one user search term;
searching a categories database for categories having at least keyword corresponding to at least one said user search term to identify at least one first level category;
identifying first level documents by searching the documents associated with at least one first level category for the presence of at least one user search term;
ranking the first level documents; and
presenting to the user at least part of one ranked document, at least some information about at least one ranked document, or a link to the document.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A documents database has a plurality of documents, including but not limited to text files, video clips and sound files. Each document is associated with at least one category of a plurality of categories in a categories database, and each category has at least one keyword. A search request having at least one search term is received from a user, and a categories database is searched for categories having a keyword corresponding to the user search term to identify first level categories. The other keywords from the identified first level categories are retrieved and the documents database is searched for documents having a user search term or a retrieved keyword. The identified documents are then ranked and presented to the user. Other search expansion techniques, and display techniques, are also discussed.
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Citations
68 Claims
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1. A method for searching for documents in a documents database, the documents database having a plurality of documents, each document being associated with at least one category of a plurality of categories in a categories database, each category comprising at least one keyword, the method comprising:
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receiving a search request from a user, the search request having at least one user search term; searching a categories database for categories having at least keyword corresponding to at least one said user search term to identify at least one first level category; identifying first level documents by searching the documents associated with at least one first level category for the presence of at least one user search term; ranking the first level documents; and presenting to the user at least part of one ranked document, at least some information about at least one ranked document, or a link to the document. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A method of ranking documents produced in response to a search request to a search engine, the search request comprising a plurality of search terms, the method comprising:
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scoring the documents in accordance with a predetermined scoring process; altering the scoring of the documents based upon at least one characteristic selected from the following characteristics;
a normalized average rating for the document based upon ratings of the document by users who have accessed the document, the document type, the source of the document, the number of times the document has been accessed, the primary person featured in the document, the title of the primary person featured in the document, or the political office of the primary person featured in the document; andranking the documents in accordance with the results of the altered scoring. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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44. A method of ranking documents produced by a search, comprising:
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receiving search result documents, each document having an initial ranking; applying event condition criteria to the documents to change the ranking of at least one document to the search request; and providing re-ranked search result documents. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52)
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- 53. The method of claim 53 wherein the ranking of the document is increased over a predetermined period of time occurring before the event condition.
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56. A method of ranking categories, each category having at least one keyword, each category having a plurality of associated documents, a search engine identifying relevant categories based upon a comparison of category keywords with search terms in a search request provided to the search engine, the method comprising:
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assigning a score to each category using the relationship wherein; X denotes a category; k1 is a coefficient representing the number of searches made regarding the category X; NoSx is the number of searches made regarding the category X; N is the number of category defined; NoSi is the number of searches made for each category I; k2 is a coefficient representing the weight of the relationship between the category X and all other categories; Wix is the weighted relationship between the category X and another category I; k3 is a coefficient representing the weighted number of searches made against related category; k4 is a coefficient representing the number of video clips related to the category X; NoVx is the number of video clips related to the category X; and k5 is a coefficient representing the number of video clips related to the category related to the category X; and ranking the categories based upon the assigned scores. - View Dependent Claims (57)
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58. A method of ranking persons, each person being associated with at least one document, a search engine identifying relevant documents based upon a search request for a person, the method comprising:
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assigning a score to each person using the relationship wherein; Y denotes a person; kp is a coefficient for the broadness of impact rank; Boly is the broadness of impact rank of the person Y; kn is a coefficient for the number of searches made regarding the person Y; NoSy is the number of searches made regarding the person Y; NoSi is the number of searchers made regarding each person; kd is a coefficient for the proximity of an election involving the person Y; and PoE(DateOfElection) is a relevance factor based upon the proximity of an election involving the person Y; kpoE1 is a coefficient for proximity of elections for the time before the date of the election involving the person Y; kpoE2 is a coefficient for proximity of elections for the time after the date of the election involving the person Y; and ranking the persons based upon the assigned scores. - View Dependent Claims (59, 60, 61)
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62. A method of indicating documents related to categories and persons, comprising:
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identifying categories to which each document is related; identifying the persons to which each document is related; ranking the categories; ranking the persons; establishing an array comprising a plurality of cells, a first predetermined cell indicating the number of documents which are related to both the highest ranked category and the highest ranked person;
a second predetermined cell indicating the number of documents which are related to both the second highest ranked category and the highest ranked person;
a third predetermined cell indicating the number of documents which are related to both the highest ranked category and the second highest ranked person;
a fourth predetermined cell indicating the number of documents which are related to both the second highest ranked category and the second highest ranked person;establishing links from the cells to the documents; and displaying the array. - View Dependent Claims (63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68)
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Specification