ASSIGNING RELEVANCE WEIGHTS BASED ON TEMPORAL DYNAMICS

• US 20100325131A1
• Filed: 06/22/2009
• Published: 12/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Elsas, Jonathan Louis, Liebling, Daniel John, Dumais, Susan T.
• Granted Patent: US 10,353,967 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/759
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

A system described herein includes a receiver component that receives a first dataset, wherein the first dataset comprises temporal dynamics pertaining to a document that is accessible by a search engine, wherein the temporal dynamics comprise an identity of a term corresponding to the document and an indication that the term has been subject to change over time. The system also includes a weight assignor component that assigns a relevance weight to the document based at least in part upon the temporal dynamics pertaining to the document, wherein the relevance weight is utilized by the search engine to assign a ranking to the document with respect to at least one other document when the search engine retrieves the document.

Claims

1. A method comprising the following computer-executable acts:

accessing a data repository that comprises first data that is indicative of temporal dynamics of a document that is accessible by way of querying a search engine, wherein the temporal dynamics of the document comprise an alteration of at least one term corresponding to the document over time, wherein the first data comprises an identity of the at least one term; and

assigning a weight to the document based at least in part upon the temporal dynamics of the document and the identity of the at least one term, wherein the weight is indicative of relevance of the document with respect to at least one other document.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the weight assigned to the document is additionally based at least in part upon a query received by a search engine, wherein the query includes the at least one term.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the weight assigned to the document is independent of a query utilized to retrieve the document through use of the search engine.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the weight assigned to the document is based at least in part upon rate of change of the at least one term in the document over a threshold period of time or a volume of change of terms in the document over the threshold period of time.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a query for execution by the search engine;

classifying the query under a particular classification; and

assigning the weight to the document based at least in part upon the query being classified under the particular classification.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data includes multiple mixture components, wherein the multiple mixture components correspond to temporal dynamics of the document such that a first mixture component in the multiple mixture components comprises terms that have a rate of change above a first threshold and a second mixture component in the multiple mixture components comprises terms that have a rate of change below the first threshold.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data includes a function that represents a continuous representation of the document over time with respect to rates of changes of terms in the document.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one term is in content of the document.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one term is in anchor text corresponding to the document.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one term is in queries utilized by the search engine to retrieve the document.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data comprises data indicative of which portions of the document have altered over time, and wherein the weight is assigned to the document based at least in part upon the data indicative of which portions of the document have altered over time.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data comprises data indicative of a nature of alteration of the at least one term, and wherein the weight is assigned to the document based at least in part upon the nature of alteration of the at least one term.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the nature of alteration comprises at least one of nature of the at least one term, wherein the nature of the at least one term comprises one of:

a) whether the at least one term is anchor text;

b) whether the at least one term is in the content of the document retrieved by the search engine;

c) whether the at least one term is included in a tag;

or d) whether the at least one term is included in a query.

14. A system comprising the following computer-executable components:

a receiver component that receives a first dataset, wherein the first dataset comprises temporal dynamics pertaining to a document that is accessible by a search engine, wherein the temporal dynamics comprise an identity of a term corresponding to the document and an indication that the term has been subject to change over time;

a weight assignor component that assigns a relevance weight to the document based at least in part upon the temporal dynamics pertaining to the document, wherein the relevance weight is utilized by the search engine to assign a ranking to the document with respect to at least one other document when the search engine retrieves the document.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the search engine is a web-based search engine.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the search engine is a client application configured for execution on a personal computing device or an enterprise search tool configured to search over data stores in an enterprise.

17. The system of claim 14, further comprising a query receiver component that receives a query for execution by the search engine, wherein the weight assignor component assigns the relevance weight to the document based at least in part upon the received query.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising a query classifier component that assigns a classification to the query, wherein the weight assignor component assigns the relevance weight to the document based at least in part upon the assigned classification.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the first dataset comprises a plurality of instances of the document, wherein each of the instances of the document correspond to portions of the document that are subject to different rates of alteration, and wherein the weight assignor component assigns the relevance weight to the document based at least in part upon the multiple instances of the document and rates of change of portions corresponding thereto.

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

assigning a first relevance weight to a document retrievable by a search engine, wherein the first relevance weight is independent of a query executed by the search engine to search over a plurality of documents, wherein the first relevance weight is assigned based at least in part upon temporal dynamics pertaining to the document;

assigning a second relevance weight to the document, wherein the second relevance weight is dependent upon contents of the query executed by the search engine, wherein the second relevance weight is based at least in part upon temporal dynamics of a specific term in the document, wherein the first relevance weight and the second relevance weight are utilized by the search engine to rank the document with respect to at least one other document upon executing the query.