Providing Relevance-Ordered Categories of Information

• US 20110252016A1
• Filed: 06/20/2011
• Published: 10/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Shacham, Yael, Wolosin, Gabriel, Jenson, Scott, Rechis, Leland
• Granted Patent: US 10,783,177 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

A computer-implemented method is disclosed. The method includes receiving from a remote device a search query, generating a plurality of different category-directed result sets for the search query, determining an order for the plurality of category-directed result sets based on the search query, and transmitting the plurality of category-directed result sets to the remote device, in a manner that the result sets are to be displayed in the remote device in the determined order.

Claims

1-23. -23. (canceled)

24. A system for providing links to users in response to search queries, the system comprising:

a first index that includes links to electronic content within a first category;

a second index that includes links to electronic content within a second category, wherein the second category of electronic content differs from the first category of electronic content;

a search engine that is executable on a computer system and programmed to respond to a search by locating a first set of search results in the first index and a second set of search results in the second index, the first set of search results including links to electronic content within the first category that is responsive to the search query, the second set of search results including links to electronic content within the second category that is responsive to the search query; and

a response formatter programmed to format a response to the search query for display, the formatted response ordering the first set of search results for more prominent display than the second set of search results, the ordering corresponding to a personalized likelihood that each particular submitter of the search query is searching for the first category of electronic content or the second category of electronic content.

25. The system of claim 24, further comprising a relevance database storing information characterizing a relevance of electronic content within the first category to respective search queries and a relevance of electronic content within the second category to the respective search queries.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the relevance of electronic content within the first category and the relevance of electronic content within the second category embody previous user interactions with results.

27. The system of claim 24, further comprising a relevance filter programmed to generate indicators of predicted relevance for electronic content within the first category and electronic content within the second category based on the information stored in the relevance database.

28. The system of claim 24, further comprising a profile database storing information characterizing frequencies at which respective submitters of search queries have searched the first category of content and frequencies at which the respective submitters have searched the second category of content.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein:

the system further comprises a profile manager programmed to

identify a first submitter of a first search query,

retrieve, from the profile database, first information characterizing the frequency at which the first submitter has searched the first category of content,

retrieve, from the profile database, second information characterizing the frequency at which the second submitter has searched the second category of content, and

convey the first information and the second information to the response formatter; and

the response formatter is further programmed to format the response to the search query based on the first information and the second information.

30. The system of claim 28, wherein the response formatter is further programmed to order the first set of search results relative to the second set of search results based on one or more of the following:

a number of electronic documents relevant to the search query located in the first index by the search engine;

a number of electronic documents relevant to the search query located in the first index by the search engine;

scores of the electronic documents located in the first index by the search engine as determined by a search engine scoring system; and

scores of the electronic documents located in the second index by the search engine as determined by the search engine scoring system.

31. The system of claim 24, wherein:

the first category of electronic content comprises image information;

the second category of electronic content comprises general web information.

32. The system of claim 24, wherein:

the first category of electronic content comprises image information;

the second category of electronic content comprises news information or map information.

33. A system for providing links to users in response to search queries, the system comprising:

a search engine that is executable on a computer system and is programmed receive a first search query from a first submitter and to respond thereto by locating a first set of search results and a second set of search results in one or more indices that include links to electronic content, the first set of search results including links to electronic content that is within the first category and that is responsive to the first search query, the second set of search results including links to electronic content that is within the second category and that is responsive to the first search query, wherein the second category of electronic content differs from the first category of electronic content;

a relevance database storing information characterizing a relevance of electronic content within the first category to respective of a plurality search queries and a relevance of electronic content within the second category to respective of the plurality search queries;

a profile database storing information characterizing frequencies at which respective of a plurality of submitters of search queries have searched the first category of content and frequencies at which respective of the plurality of submitters have searched the second category of content; and

a response formatter programmed to format a response to the search query for display, the formatted response ordering the first set of search results for more prominent display than the second set of search results, the ordering embodying the relevance of electronic content within at least one of the first and second category to the first search query and the frequency at which the first submitter has searched at least one of the first category of content and the second category of content.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein:

the first category of electronic content comprises image information;

the second category of electronic content comprises general web information.

35. The system of claim 33, wherein:

the first category of electronic content comprises image information;

the second category of electronic content comprises news information or map information.

36. A method implemented by a system of one or more computing devices, the method comprising:

receiving, at the system, a search query from a first submitter;

receiving, at the system, the same search query from a second submitter;

generating, by the system, a first result set responsive to the query, the first result set including links to electronic content within a first category;

generating, by the system, a second result set responsive to the query, the second result set including links to electronic content within a second category, wherein the second category of electronic content differs from the first category of electronic content;

ordering, by the system, the first result set for more prominent display than the second result set in a first response to be sent to the first submitter; and

ordering, by the system, the second result set for more prominent display than the first result set in a second response to be sent to the second submitter.

37. The method of claim 36, further comprising transmitting, by the system, the first response to the first submitter and transmitting the second response to the second submitter.

38. The method of claim 36, wherein ordering the first result set for more prominent display than the second result set comprises:

accessing a user profile of the first submitter; and

determining, based on the user profile, that the first submitter is more likely to be interested in electronic content within the first category than in electronic content within the second category.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the user profile of the first submitter comprises:

information characterizing a frequency at which the first submitter has searched for electronic content within the first category; and

information characterizing a frequency at which the first submitter has searched for electronic content within the second category.

40. The method of claim 38, wherein accessing the user profile comprises identifying a particular profile of the first submitter based on a device used by the first submitter to submit the search query.

41. The method of claim 36, wherein:

the first category of electronic content comprises image information;

the second category of electronic content comprises general web information.

42. The method of claim 36, wherein ordering the first result set for more prominent display than the second result set in the first response comprises calculating a likelihood that the first submitter is searching for electronic content within the first category, the calculated likelihood embodying a frequency at which the first submitter has accessed electronic content within the first category in the past and a frequency at which a plurality of submitters of the search query have accessed electronic content within the first category in the past.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the likelihood further embodies a frequency at which submitters of the search query using a class of device have accessed electronic content within the first category in the past.