UPDATING A SEARCH INDEX USED TO FACILITATE APPLICATION SEARCHES

• US 20130290344A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 10/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Quixey, Inc.
• Inventors: Glover, Eric, Shapira, Liron, Tarleton, Nicolas
• Granted Patent: US 9,600,530 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/741
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/31 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90 Details of database functions independent of the retrieved data types
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for maintaining a search index used to support application searches. The techniques include receiving application data from one or more data sources, identifying an application referenced in the application data. The techniques further include extracting a plurality of attributes corresponding to the application from the application data based on an application specific search schema. The techniques also include generating an application representation of the application based on the plurality of attributes and the application specific search schema. The techniques also include updating a search index with the application representation.

Claims

1. A method for maintaining search indexes used to support application searches, the method comprising:

receiving, at a processing device, application data from one or more data sources;

identifying, at the processing device, an application referenced in the application data;

generating, at the processing device, a plurality of attributes corresponding to the application from the application data based on an application specific search schema;

generating, at the processing device, an application representation of the application based on the plurality of attributes and the application specific search schema; and

updating a search index with the application representation, wherein one or more attributes of the application representation are used to score the application according to a machine-learned scoring model and responsive to a received search query.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the application data is received in at least one of an unstructured format, a structured format, or a semi-structured format.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the application representation references a canonical application and one or more edition applications, the canonical application being a representative of the one or more edition applications.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying the application includes identifying, at the processing device, the canonical application and the one or more edition applications based on the application data.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein generating the plurality of attributes includes:

extracting, at the processing device, a plurality of general attributes corresponding to the canonical application from the application data; and

extracting, at the processing device, a plurality of edition attributes for each of the one or more edition applications from the application data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein at least a subset of the plurality of edition attributes is inherited by the plurality of general attributes.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein generating the application representation includes organizing the plurality of general attributes and the plurality of edition attributes for each of the one or more edition applications according to the application search specific schema.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the search index is a searchable database storing a plurality of application representations, each application representation representing a different application.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the search index is searchable by attributes of the plurality of application representations, wherein the search index returns one or more application representations having a particular attribute in response to a query for the particular attribute.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the attributes includes:

combining, at the processing device, two or more instances of application data; and

generating, at the processing device, an attribute based on text contained in the combination of the application data, wherein the extracted attribute is not wholly contained in any one of the instances of the application data.

11. A server comprising:

a search index storing a plurality of application representations;

a processing device executing a data processing module, an extraction module, and an indexing module;

the data processing module being configured to receive application data from one or more data sources;

the extraction module being configured to;

identify, at the processing device, an application referenced in the application data;

generate a plurality of attributes corresponding to the application from the application data based on an application specific search schema; and

generate an application representation of the application based on the plurality of attributes and the application specific search schema; and

the indexing module being configured to update the search index with the application representation, wherein one or more attributes of the application representation are used to score the application according to a machine-learned scoring model and responsive to a received search query.

12. The server of claim 11, wherein the application data is received in at least one of an unstructured format, a structured format, or a semi-structured format.

13. The server of claim 11, wherein the application representation references a canonical application and one or more edition applications, wherein the canonical application is associated with each one of the one or more edition applications.

14. The server of claim 13, wherein the extraction module is configured to identify the application by identifying the canonical application and the one or more edition applications based on the application data.

15. The server of claim 13, wherein the extraction module is configured to extract the attributes by:

extracting a plurality of general attributes corresponding to the canonical application from the application data; and

generating a plurality of edition attributes for each of the one or more edition applications from the application data.

16. The server of claim 15, wherein at least a subset of the plurality of edition attributes is inherited by the plurality of general attributes.

17. The server of claim 15, wherein the extraction module is configured to generate the application representation by organizing the plurality of general attributes and the plurality of edition attributes for each of the one or more edition applications according to the application search specific schema.

18. The server of claim 11, wherein the search index is a searchable database storing the plurality of application representations, each application representation representing a different application.

19. The server of claim 18, wherein the search index is searchable by attributes of the plurality of application representations, wherein the search index returns one or more application representations having a particular attribute in response to a query for the particular attribute.

20. The server of claim 13, wherein the extraction module is configured to extract the attributes by combining two or more instances of application data and generating an attribute based on text contained in the combination of the application data, wherein the generated attribute is not wholly contained in any one of the instances of the application data.