RESOURCE LOCATOR SUGGESTIONS FROM INPUT CHARACTER SEQUENCE

• US 20100005086A1
• Filed: 09/16/2008
• Published: 01/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Xu, Wei, Yao, Baogang, Yang, Runhua, Wang, Yonggang, Yang, Bo, Wu, Jun, Zhang, Lei, Hong, Feng, Tang, Xiliu, Ou, Henry
• Granted Patent: US 8,745,051 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/018 Input/output arrangements for oriental characters
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0237 using prediction or retrieval techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, in which an input method editor receives Roman character inputs, identifies keywords for candidate sets of a non-Roman character, and identifies an associated resource location. Upon identifying an associated resource location, associating the resource location with the candidate set of non-Roman characters.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving Roman character inputs;

using the Roman character inputs to identify candidate sets of non-Roman characters;

identifying candidate sets of resource locations, each candidate set of resource locations associated with a corresponding candidate set of non-Roman characters; and

providing the candidate sets of resource locations and the candidate sets of non-Roman characters to a user interface for display.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying candidate sets of resource locations comprises, for each candidate set of non-Roman characters:

identifying keywords for the candidate set of non-Roman characters;

for each identified keyword, identifying an associated resource location; and

associating the resource locations with the candidate set of non-Roman characters.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein identifying keywords for the candidate set of non-Roman characters comprises prefix searching keywords using the candidate set of non-Roman characters as a prefix.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection of one of the candidate sets of non-Roman characters; and

in response to receiving the selection, displaying the candidate set of resource locations associated with the candidate set of non-Roman characters.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-Roman characters are Hanzi characters.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein using the Roman character inputs to identify candidate sets of non-Roman characters further comprises, for each of the candidate sets of non-Roman characters:

searching a prefix table with the candidate set of non-Roman characters to identify keywords, the prefix table mapping keywords to prefixes in non-Roman characters;

searching a keyword table with the identified keywords to identify resource locations, the keyword table mapping keywords to resource locations; and

associating the identified resource locations with the candidate set of non-Roman characters.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein:

searching a keyword table with the identified keywords to identify resource locations comprises, for each identified keyword;

identifying resource locations mapped to the identified keyword;

identifying a ranking of each resource location mapped to the identified keyword; and

selecting the resource location with the highest ranking; and

associating the identified resource locations with the candidate set of non-Roman characters comprises associating only the highest ranked resource location for each keyword with the candidate set of non-Roman characters.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

tracking a number of times each of the resource locations in each of the candidate sets of resource locations is selected; and

adjusting the ranking of each resource location based on the number of times each of the resources locations is selected.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising, for each candidate set of resource locations:

tracking a number of times each of the resource locations in each of the candidate sets of resource locations is selected; and

ranking the resource locations in each of the candidates sets of resource locations relative to the other resource locations in the candidate sets of resource locations based on the number of times each of the resource locations has been selected.

10. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

displaying each of the candidate sets of non-Roman characters on the user interface;

receiving a selection of one of the candidate sets of non-Roman characters; and

displaying only the candidate set of resource locations and keywords associated with the selected one of the candidate sets of non-Roman characters.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the candidate sets of resource locations and the candidate sets of non-Roman characters to a user interface for display comprises transmitting the candidate sets of resource locations and the candidate sets of non-Roman characters to a user device that includes the user interface.

12. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

identifying keywords from queries in a query log;

generating a mapping of the keywords to resource locations, each resource location being a location that was selected by a user in response to a search that included the keyword to which the location is mapped;

generating a mapping of prefixes to keywords; and

providing the mapping of prefixes to keywords and the mapping of the keywords to resource locations to a client device for use in resolving resource location addresses at the client device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein generating a mapping of prefixes to keywords comprises generating a prefix tree for the keywords, each node in the prefix tree corresponding to a keyword or a prefix common to multiple keywords.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein each keyword comprises one or more Hanzi characters.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein generating a mapping of the keywords to resource locations comprises ranking each resource location for each keyword relative to the other resource location for the keyword based on the number of times each of the resource locations has been selected.

16. A computer program product tangibly embedded in a machine-readable medium the computer program product comprising instructions that, when read by a machine, cause a data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving Roman character inputs;

using the Roman character inputs to identify candidate sets of non-Roman characters;

identifying candidate sets of resource locations, each candidate set of resource locations associated with a corresponding candidate set of non-Roman characters; and

providing the candidate sets of resource locations and the candidate sets of non-Roman characters to a user interface for display.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein identifying candidate sets of resource locations comprises, for each candidate set of non-Roman characters:

identifying keywords for the candidate set of non-Roman characters;

for each identified keyword, identifying an associated resource location; and

associating the resource locations with the candidate set of non-Roman characters.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein identifying keywords for the candidate set of non-Roman characters comprises prefix searching keywords using the candidate set of non-Roman characters as a prefix.

19. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving a selection of one of the candidate sets of non-Roman characters; and

in response to receiving the selection, displaying the candidate set of resource locations associated with the candidate set of non-Roman characters.

20. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the non-Roman characters are Hanzi characters.

21. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein using the Roman character inputs to identify candidate sets of non-Roman characters further comprises, for each of the candidate sets of non-Roman characters:

searching a prefix table with the candidate set of non-Roman characters to identify keywords, the prefix table mapping keywords to prefixes in non-Roman characters;

searching a keyword table with the identified keywords to identify resource locations, the keyword table mapping keywords to resource locations; and

associating the identified resource locations with the candidate set of non-Roman characters.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein:

searching a keyword table with the identified keywords to identify resource locations comprises, for each identified keyword;

identifying resource locations mapped to the identified keyword;

identifying a ranking of each resource location mapped to the identified keyword; and

selecting the resource location with the highest ranking; and

associating the identified resource locations with the candidate set of non-Roman characters comprises associating only the highest ranked resource location for each keyword with the candidate set of non-Roman characters.

23. The computer program product of claim 22, further comprising:

tracking a number of times each of the resource locations in each of the candidate sets of resource locations is selected; and

adjusting the ranking of each resource location based on the number of times each of the resources locations is selected.