Information Search Method and System

• US 20110218989A1
• Filed: 08/27/2010
• Published: 09/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Inventors: Luo, Yi
• Granted Patent: US 9,367,605 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/319 Inverted lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3331 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/334 Query execution G06F16/335 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/345 Summarisation for human users

Abstract

The present disclosure provides an information search method and system applicable in an information search system wherein each document has corresponding forward index data to address the issue of low search efficiency suffered by existing information search techniques. In one aspect, the method may include: receiving an inquiry word and obtaining one or more keywords contained in the inquiry word by segmentation; searching one or more documents matching the one or more keywords and forward index data corresponding to the one or more documents through the information search system'"'"'s inverted index data; and determining an abstract of each of the one or more documents according to a corresponding document'"'"'s forward index data, and outputting the abstract and information of the one or more documents as a search result. The proposed techniques can increase efficiency of information search and, at the meantime, guarantee accuracy of the search to a certain extent.

Claims

1. An information search method applicable in an information search system, the method comprising:

receiving an inquiry word from a user;

segmenting the inquiry word into one or more keywords;

searching for one or more documents matching the one or more keywords and searching for forward index data corresponding to the one or more documents based on the information search system'"'"'s inverted index data, each document having corresponding forward index data that uses at least one word in the respective document as index and records location of the at least one word in the respective document;

determining an abstract of at least one of the one or more documents according to the forward index data corresponding to the respective document; and

outputting the abstract and information related to the one or more documents as a search result.

2. The information search method as recited in claim 1, wherein the abstract comprises a text paragraph including a highest number of the one or more keywords among text paragraphs within a length limit based on the forward index data.

3. The information search method as recited in claim 2, wherein in an event that there are multiple text paragraphs including the highest number of the one or more keywords within the length limit, the abstract comprises one of the multiple text paragraphs that has a highest repetition of the one or more keywords.

4. The information search method as recited in claim 2, wherein determining an abstract of the document according to the forward index data corresponding to the respective document further comprises, for at least one of the one or more documents:

traversing at least one word in the respective document'"'"'s forward index data;

recording at least one traversed word in a first data structure by using the respective word'"'"'s location as an index, in an event that a traversed word matches the one or more keywords;

recording the respective word'"'"'s location in a second data structure by using the respective word as an index;

determining a beginning position of the abstract according to records in the second data structure;

determining an ending position of the abstract according to the length limit and records in the first data structure, wherein a length of a text paragraph between the staring position and the ending position is not longer than the length limit, and wherein the text paragraph has the highest number of the one or more keywords; and

generating the abstract according to the determined starting and ending positions and the forward index data.

5. The information search method as recited in claim 1, wherein outputting the abstract and information of the one or more documents as the search result further comprises:

ranking. from high to low, the search result including the abstract and document information of at least one of the one or more documents according to a degree of matching between a respective document of the one or more documents and the one or more keywords; and

outputting the ranked search result according to a predetermined data format.

6. An information search system including a storage module that stores the system'"'"'s inverted index data and at least one document'"'"'s corresponding forward index data that uses at least one word in the respective document as an index and records the at least one word'"'"'s location in the respective document, the system comprising:

an input module that receives an inquiry word input into the system;

a search module that obtains one or more keywords contained in the inquiry word by segmentation, searches one or more documents matching the one or more keywords and the one or more documents'"'"' corresponding forward index data through the inverted index data, and determines a respective abstract of at least one of the one or more documents according to the respective document'"'"'s corresponding forward index data; and

an output module that outputs the abstract and information related to at least one of the one or more documents as a search result.

7. The information search system as recited in claim 6, wherein when the search module that determines the respective abstract of at least one of the one or more documents according to the respective document'"'"'s corresponding forward index data, the search module determines a text paragraph including a highest number of the one or more keywords among one or more text paragraphs within a length limit determined by the forward index data as the abstract.

8. The information search system as recited in claim 7, wherein in an event that the search module determines that there are multiple text paragraphs including the highest number of the one or more keywords within the length limit, the abstract is one of the multiple text paragraphs that has a highest repetition of the one or more keywords.

9. The information search system as recited in claim 6, wherein the search module further comprises:

a search sub-module that obtains the one or more keyword contained in the inquiry word after segmentation of the inquiry word, finds the one or more documents matching the one or more keywords and the one or more documents'"'"' forward index data through the inverted index data;

an abstract generation sub-module that, for the forward index data of at least one of the one or more documents, traverses at least one word in the respective document'"'"'s forward index data, records the at least one traversed word in a first data structure by using the respective word'"'"'s location as an index, in an event that a traversed word matches the one or more keywords;

records the respective word'"'"'s location in a second data structure by using the respective word as an index;

determines a beginning position of the abstract according to records in the second data structure, determines an ending position of the abstract according to the length limit and records in the first data structure, wherein a length of a text paragraph between the staring position and the ending position is not longer than the length limit, and the text paragraph has the highest number of the one or more keywords; and

generates the abstract according to the determined starting and ending positions and the forward index data; and

a submission sub-module that submits to the output module the generated abstract and document information related to the one or more documents.

10. The information search system as recited in claim 6, wherein the output module ranks, from high to low, the search result including the abstract and document information of each of the one or more documents according to a degree of matching between a respective document of the one or more documents and the one or more keywords, and wherein the output module outputs the ranked search result according to a predetermined data format.