Search System that Uses Semantic Constructs Defined by Your Social Network

• US 20100250526A1
• Filed: 03/25/2010
• Published: 09/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Mycroft Mind as
• Original Assignee: Mycroft Mind as
• Inventors: Procházka, Filip, Stanícek, Zdenko
• Application Number:
  US12/731,919
• Publication Number:
  US 20100250526A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3338 Query expansion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

A search mechanism that involves receiving input that specifies a search term, e.g., a word or sequence of words. The input is received via a computer network from a user. The search term has an associated meaning that has been defined by the user, one or more members of the user'"'"'s social network, and/or, a provider of an Internet-based service. The search mechanism may also involve searching a database based on the search term to obtain search results, and sending at least a portion of the search results to the user via the Internet. The search mechanism may also perform searches based on a user-specified phrase that is composed of a number of search terms.

Claims

1. A computer-accessible memory medium storing program instructions, wherein the program instructions are executable by a computer system, wherein the program instructions, if executed by the computer system, cause the computer system to:

receive input that specifies a search term, wherein the input is received via a computer network from a first user, wherein the search term has an associated meaning that has been defined by;

the first user, a member of a social network of the first user, or a provider of an Internet-based service, wherein said member is different from the first user;

search a database based on the search term to obtain search results; and

send at least a portion of the search results to the first user via the computer network.

2. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein the Internet-based service provider is an Internet-based business, wherein the database stores information regarding items offered for sale by the Internet-based business.

3. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein the Internet-based service is a job search service, wherein the database stores information regarding offers for employment.

4. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein the Internet-based service is a service for searching real estate properties, wherein the database stores information regarding real estate properties.

5. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein the Internet-based service is a service for searching events generated by a monitoring systems, wherein the database stores information regarding the events generated by the monitoring systems.

6. A computer-accessible memory medium storing program instructions, wherein the program instructions are executable by a computer system, wherein the program instructions, if executed by the computer system, cause the computer system to:

receive input that specifies a search term, wherein the input is received via a computer network from a first user, wherein the search term has an associated meaning that has been defined by the first user and/or a member of a social network of the first user, wherein said member of the social network is different from the first user;

search a database based on the search term to obtain search results; and

send at least a portion of the search results to the first user via the computer network.

7. The memory medium of claim 6, wherein the search term is a word sequence, wherein the meaning of the search term is represented by an AND/OR tree, wherein each element of the AND/OR tree specifies a corresponding prescription for evaluation of the database, wherein said searching includes searching the database based on the AND/OR tree.

8. The memory medium of claim 7, wherein said searching the database based on the AND/OR tree produces a graph including nodes and edges.

9. A computer-accessible memory medium storing program instructions, wherein the program instructions are executable by a computer system, wherein the program instructions, if executed by the computer system, cause the computer system to:

search a database of data items based on words and/or word sequences whose meanings are specified by a user and/or one or more members of the user'"'"'s social network, wherein said search produces a resultant graph having nodes and edges; and

send a filtered version of the resultant graph to the user via a computer network.

10. The memory medium of claim 9, wherein the program instructions, if executed by the computer system, further cause the computer system to:

receive input from the user defining the meaning of one of the words or word sequences prior to said search.

11. The memory medium of claim 10, wherein the program instructions, if executed by the computer system, further cause the computer system to:

receive input indicating the user'"'"'s election to share the meaning with another user.

12. The memory medium of claim 9, wherein the database is a database of offers for service by businesses or a database of information regarding real estate properties or a database of job offers.

13. The memory medium of claim 9, wherein the database is a database of information regarding events generated by a monitoring system.

14. The memory medium of claim 9, wherein the nodes of the resultant graph represent items from the database that have been identified by said search, wherein edges of the resultant graph represent relationships between said items.

15. The memory medium of claim 9, wherein the program instructions, if executed by the computer system, further cause the computer system to:

assign an attention value to each node in the resultant graph; and

rank the nodes in the resultant graph according to the assigned attention values.

16. The memory medium of claim 9, wherein the program instructions, if executed by the computer system, further cause the computer system to:

assign an attention value to each edge in the resultant graph; and

rank the edges in the resultant graph according to the assigned attention values.

17. The memory medium of claim 9, wherein the program instructions, if executed by the computer system, further cause the computer system to:

filter the resultant graph according to one or more filtering rules to obtain the filtered version of the resultant graph.

18. The memory medium of claim 17, wherein each of the nodes of the resultant graph has been assigned a corresponding attention value, wherein said filtering eliminates nodes from the resultant graph that have corresponding attention value less than a threshold value specified by the user.

19. The memory medium of claim 9, wherein the meaning of each word or word sequence is defined by an associated attention context that specifies a prescription for evaluation of the database.

20. The memory medium of claim 19, wherein said words and/or word sequences include a first word, wherein the attention context associated with the first word specifies an SQL query or a stored procedure.

21. The memory medium of claim 19, wherein said words and/or word sequences include a first word sequence, wherein the attention context associated with the first word sequence specifies an AND/OR tree whose elements are attention contexts, each of which specifies a corresponding prescription for evaluation of the database.

22. The memory medium of claim 19, wherein said searching includes:

performing a number of searches of the database based respectively on the associated attention contexts to obtain respective partial graphs; and

combining the partial graphs to form said resultant graph.

23. The memory medium of claim 19, wherein the program instructions, if executed by the computer system, further cause the computer system to:

receive input from the user, said input defining a new attention context based on two or more previously-existing attention contexts, wherein each of the previously-existing attention contexts specifies a corresponding prescription for evaluating the database, wherein said input specifies an AND/OR tree structure for the two or more previously-existing attention contexts; and

store the new attention context in a memory.

24. A computer-accessible memory medium storing program instructions, wherein the program instructions are executable by a computer system, wherein the program instructions, if executed by the computer system, cause the computer system to:

receive input from a first user that specifies a search term, wherein the search term has an associated meaning that has been defined by;

the first user, a member of a social network of the first user, or a provider of an Internet-based service, wherein the member of the social network is different from the first user;

send the search term to a server via the Internet; and

receive search results corresponding to the search term from the server; and

displaying the search results.