INTEGRATING SEARCHES

• US 20130238627A1
• Filed: 03/06/2012
• Published: 09/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: CONNELL, DERRICK, MACBETH, STEVEN, MANDHANA, TAROON, QIAN, RICHARD, SHUMAN, ANDREW, FIRBY, ROBERT
• Application Number:
  US13/413,203
• Publication Number:
  US 20130238627A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/741
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer-storage media having computer-usable instructions embodied thereon, for integrating searches are provided. An entity index may be compiled that includes entity files for a plurality of identified entities such that any information known about a single entity is contained in a single entity file and is easily accessible. Web indexes, including web page information, may be referenced in order to associate web pages with entities, or entity files. Once identified as related to an entity, a web page may be associated with an entity identifier that is associated with the related entity such that a search query for the identified entity results in both entity information for the entity and web pages associated with the entity.

Claims

1. One or more computer storage media storing computer-useable instructions that, when used by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform a method, the method comprising:

creating an entity index by compiling information received regarding one or more entities;

referencing a web index, wherein the web index includes a plurality of web pages;

identifying one or more web pages related to at least one of the one or more entities; and

associating the one or more web pages with the at least one of the one or more entities.

2. The one or more computer storage media of claim 1, wherein an entity is a physical thing existing in a physical world.

3. The one or more computer storage media of claim 1, wherein an entity is a concept or a non-physical thing existing in a virtual world.

4. The one or more computer storage media of claim 1, wherein the one or more web pages is associated with at least one of the one or more entities by associating each of the one or more web pages and the at least one of the one or more entities with an entity identifier that is the same.

5. The one or more computer storage media of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving a search query including an entity;

identifying an entity identifier associated with the entity; and

identifying, with the web index, a plurality of web pages including one or more web pages associated with the entity identifier of the plurality of web pages.

6. The one or more computer storage media of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving a search query including an entity;

identifying an entity identifier associated with the entity; and

identifying entity information associated with the entity identifier from the entity index.

7. The one or more computer storage media of claim 6, further comprising presenting the entity information associated with the entity identifier in combination with a plurality of web pages associated with the entity identifier.

8. The one or more computer storage media of claim 1, wherein the entity index is created by identifying entity descriptions within the information received and mapping the entity descriptions to at least one entity.

9. A system for integrating searches, comprising:

a computing device associated with one or more processors and one or more computer-readable storage media;

a data store coupled with the computing device; and

an integrating engine that

creates an entity index by compiling information received regarding one or more entities;

references a web index, wherein the web index includes a plurality of web pages;

identifies one or more web pages related to at least one of the one or more entities; and

associates the one or more web pages with the at least one of the one or more entities.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein an entity is a physical thing existing in a physical world.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein an entity is a concept or a non-physical thing existing in a virtual world.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more web pages is associated with at least one of the one or more entities by associating each of the one or more web pages and the at least one of the one or more entities with an entity identifier that is the same.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the integrating engine is further configured to, upon receiving a search query, identify one or more entities described within the search query and present a web page associated with at least one of the one or more entities based on an entity identifier associated with the one or more entities and the web page.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the integrating engine is further configured to merge duplicate entity identifiers with one another such that a single entity file exists for each entity identifier.

15. One or more computer storage media storing computer-useable instructions that, when used by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform a method, the method comprising:

creating an entity index by

(a) compiling information received regarding one or more entities;

(b) analyzing the information received regarding the one or more entities to identify an entity description for at least one entity described within the information received;

(c) mapping the information received regarding the one or more entities to a common ontology;

(d) merging each item of information including the entity description for the at least one entity into an entity file; and

(e) assigning an entity identifier to the entity file for the at least one entity;

referencing the web index to identify at least one web page including the entity description for the at least one entity;

associating the at least one web page with the entity identifier; and

upon receiving a search query describing the at least one entity, presenting information from the entity file associated with the at least one entity identified within the search query.

16. The one or more computer storage media of claim 15, further comprising presenting the information from the one or more entity files associated with the one or more entities described within the search query in conjunction with a plurality of web pages associated with an entity identifier that is also associated with the one or more entity files.

17. The one or more computer storage media of claim 16, further comprising ranking the one or more entity files associated with the one or more entities described within the search query.

18. The one or more computer storage media of claim 16, further comprising ranking the plurality of web pages associated with the entity identifier that is also associated with the one or more entity files.

19. The one or more computer storage media of claim 15, further comprising ranking both the one or more entity files and the plurality of web pages from both the entity index and the web index.

20. The one or more computer storage media of claim 15, wherein determining that the information received is related to one or more entities includes one or more of identifying a web page address from which the information was obtained and identifying a similarity measurement between the one or more entities and a particular web page.