SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INTENT-DRIVEN SEARCH RESULT PRESENTATION

• US 20110029541A1
• Filed: 07/31/2009
• Published: 02/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Schulman, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 8,341,157 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/748
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

A system and method for intent driven search presentation. A system and method for intent driven search presentation. A query is received, over a network, from a user, wherein the query comprises at least one query token. The query is analyzed wherein at least one query keyword is identified in the query. The query is classified wherein the query is classified into at least one intent using query keywords. A plurality of data objects that match query keywords is identified. The data objects are ranked, wherein at least one intent is assigned to at least some of the data objects. A result is built using the ranked plurality of data objects, wherein the result comprises display entries wherein if a data object has been assigned at least one intent, such intent is used to construct the display entry for the respective data object. The result is transmitted over the network to the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising the steps of:

receiving, over a network, a query from a user, wherein the query comprising at least one query token;

analyzing the query, using at least one computing device, wherein at least one query keyword is identified;

classifying the query, using the at least one computing device, wherein the query is classified into at least one intent using the at least one query keyword;

identifying, using the at least one computing device, a plurality of data objects available over the network that match the at least one query keyword;

ranking, using the at least one computing device, the plurality of data objects, wherein at least one of the at least one intents is assigned to at least some of the plurality of data objects;

building a result, using the at least one computing device, using the ranked plurality of data objects, wherein the result comprises a plurality of display entries, wherein at least one display entry is constructed for each of the ranked plurality of data objects, wherein if a data object has been assigned at least one intent, such intents are used to construct the display entry for the respective data object; and

transmitting the result, over the network, to the user.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one intent comprises an unclassified intent.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the analysis step identifies query keywords by parsing the tokens and identifying common entities, phrases, spelling errors, synonyms, variants of stems, and noisewords.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein, in the classifying step, the query is classified by linguistic analysis of the at least one query keyword;

5. The method of claim 1 wherein, in the classifying step, profile information for the user is additionally used to classify the query;

6. The method of claim 1 wherein, in the classifying step, previous queries submitted by the user during a user session are additionally used to classify the query;

7. The method of claim 1 wherein, in the classifying step, previous queries submitted by a subset of all users are additionally used to classify the query;

8. The method of claim 1 wherein, in the classifying step, click data from at least one previous user session for the user are additionally used to classify the query;

9. The method of claim 1 wherein, in the classifying step, click data from at least one previous user session for a subset of all users are additionally used to classify the query;

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of data objects are ranked by intent.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein, in the building step, each of the ranked plurality of data objects to which at least one intent has been assigned are matched against at least one presentation rule associated with the respective data object and matching presentation rules are used to construct the at least one display entry for the respective data object.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the at least one presentation rules are supplied via a feed.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the at least one presentation rules are embedded in the respective data object.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the at least one presentation rules comprise an object matching pattern and at least one set of attribute rules, wherein each of sets of attribute rules is associated with an intent matching pattern, and wherein the at least one presentation rules matches one of the plurality of data objects if a name of the respective object matches the object matching pattern and the at least one intent assigned to the respective data object matches the intent matching pattern associated with the at least one set of attribute rules, wherein the at least one set of attribute rules are used to construct the at least one display entry for the respective data object

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the at least one intent associated with at least one of the ranked plurality of data objects comprises at least two intents and one of the at least two intents which is most likely is used to match the respective data object to the at least one presentation rules.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein at least one of the ranked plurality of data objects matches at least two presentation rules and each of the at least two presentation rules are used to construct the at least one display entry for the respective data object.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the at least two presentation rules are used in the most specific order first to construct the at least one display entry for the respective data object.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the at least two presentation rules each additionally comprise a rule precedence and the at least two presentation rules are used in precedence order to construct the at least one display entry for the respective data object.

19. The method of claim 11 wherein at least one of the ranked plurality of data objects matches a first at least one presentation rule originating from a trusted feed and a second at least one presentation rule originating from an untrusted feed, wherein the first at least one presentation rule is used before the second at least one presentation rule.

20. The method of claim 11 wherein at least one of the ranked plurality of data objects matches a first at least one presentation rule originating from a trusted feed and a second at least one presentation rule embedded in the respective data object, wherein the first at least one presentation rule is used before the second at least one presentation rule.

21. A system comprising:

a query receiving module comprising one or more processors programmed to execute software code retrieved from a computer readable storage medium storing software for receiving, over a network, queries from users, wherein the queries each comprise at least one query token;

a query analysis module comprising one or more processors programmed to execute software code retrieved from a computer readable storage medium storing software for analyzing queries received by the query receiving module wherein at least one query keyword is identified in each of the respective queries received by the query receiving module;

a query intent classification module comprising one or more processors programmed to execute software code retrieved from a computer readable storage medium storing software for classifying queries analyzed by the query analysis module, wherein each query is classified into at least one intent using the query'"'"'s respective at least one query keyword;

a query search module comprising one or more processors programmed to execute software code retrieved from a computer readable storage medium storing software for identifying, for each query classified by the query intent classification module, a plurality of data objects available over the network that match the respective query keywords;

a search result ranking module comprising one or more processors programmed to execute software code retrieved from a computer readable storage medium storing software for ranking, for each query processed by the query search module, the respective plurality of data objects, wherein at least one of the at least one intents is assigned to at least some of the plurality of data objects;

a search result presentation module comprising one or more processors programmed to execute software code retrieved from a computer readable storage medium storing software for building, for each plurality of data objects ranked by the search result ranking module, a result using the respective ranked plurality of data objects, wherein the result comprises a plurality of display entries, wherein at least one display entry is constructed for each of the respective ranked plurality of data objects, wherein if a data object has been assigned at least one intent, such intents are used to construct the display entry for the respective data object;

a search result transmission module comprising one or more processors programmed to execute software code retrieved from a computer readable storage medium storing software for transmitting results built by the search result presentation module, over the network, to users.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the search result presentation module is further programmed such that each of the ranked plurality of data objects to which at least one intent has been assigned are matched against at least one presentation rule associated with the respective data object and matching presentation rules are used by the search result presentation module to construct the at least one display entry for the respective data object.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the at least one presentation rules comprise an object matching pattern and at least one set of attribute rules, wherein each set of attribute rules is associated with an intent matching pattern, and wherein the at least one presentation rules matches one of the plurality of data objects if a name of the respective object matches the object matching pattern and the at least one intent assigned to the respective data object matches the intent matching pattern associated with the at least one set of attribute rules, wherein the at least one set of attribute rules are used to construct the at least one display entry for the respective data object

24. The system of claim 22 wherein the at least one intent associated with at least one of the ranked plurality of data objects comprises at least two intents and one of the at least two intents which is most likely is used to match the respective data object to the at least one presentation rules.

25. The system of claim 22 wherein at least one of the ranked plurality of data objects matches at least two presentation rules and each of the at least two presentation rules are used to construct the at least one display entry for the respective data object.

26. The system of claim 22 wherein the at least two presentation rules are used in the most specific order first to construct the at least one display entry for the respective data object.

27. The system of claim 22 wherein the at least two presentation rules each additionally comprise a rule precedence and the at least two presentation rules are used in precedence order to construct the at least one display entry for the respective data object.

28. The system of claim 22 wherein at least one of the ranked plurality of data objects matches a first at least one presentation rule originating from a trusted feed and a second at least one presentation rule originating from an untrusted feed, wherein the first at least one presentation rule is used before the second at least one presentation rule.

29. The system of claim 22 wherein at least one of the ranked plurality of data objects matches a first at least one presentation rule originating from a trusted feed and a second at least one presentation rule embedded in the respective data object, wherein the first at least one presentation rule is used before the second at least one presentation rule.

30. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for a method comprising the steps of:

receiving, over a network, a query from a user, wherein the query comprising at least one query token;

analyzing the query, using at least one computing device, wherein at least one query keyword is identified;

classifying the query, using the at least one computing device, wherein the query is classified into at least one intent using the at least one query keyword;

identifying, using the at least one computing device, a plurality of data objects available over the network that match the at least one query keyword;

ranking, using the at least one computing device, the plurality of data objects, wherein at least one of the at least one intents is assigned to at least some of the plurality of data objects;

building a result, using the at least one computing device, using the ranked plurality of data objects, wherein the result comprises a plurality of display entries, wherein at least one display entry is constructed for each of the ranked plurality of data objects, wherein if a data object has been assigned at least one intent, such intents are used to construct the display entry for the respective data object; and

transmitting the result, over the network, to the user.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 30 wherein, in the building step, each of the ranked plurality of data objects to which at least one intent has been assigned are matched against at least one presentation rule associated with the respective data object and matching presentation rules are used to construct the at least one display entry for the respective data object.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 wherein the at least one presentation rules comprise an object matching pattern and at least one set of attribute rules, wherein each of sets of attribute rules is associated with an intent matching pattern, and wherein the at least one presentation rules matches one of the plurality of data objects if a name of the respective object matches the object matching pattern and the at least one intent assigned to the respective data object matches the intent matching pattern associated with the at least one set of attribute rules, wherein the at least one set of attribute rules are used to construct the at least one display entry for the respective data object