Disambiguating Intents Within Search Engine Result Pages

• US 20130332438A1
• Filed: 06/12/2012
• Published: 12/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Li, Kang, Li, Yi, Qian, Richard
• Granted Patent: US 9,183,310 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

Systems, computer-readable media, and methods for generating search engine results pages are provided. A user provides a search engine with one or more query terms. The query terms may be associated with an intent, e.g. product entity, store entity, person entity. The search engine classifies the query and identifies search results that correspond to the query. The search results are grouped based on intents associated with the query. A graphical user interface displays the grouped on search results and allows the user to modify the groupings. The graphical user interface is also updated with entity or entity attributes corresponding to the intents used to group the search results.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method to generate search engine result pages, the method comprising:

receiving a query;

identifying search results associated with the query;

locating intents associated with the search results;

grouping the search results based on intents;

generating a search engine results page having the search results and intents corresponding to the search results;

providing the search engine results page for display on a user device;

receiving user feedback on the groups, wherein the feedback verifies the search results in the group, removes one or more search results, or adds one or more search results to the groups;

updating the search engine results page based on the user feedback and including attributes associated with the intents in the search engine results page; and

transmitting the updated search engine results page for display on a user device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the query includes an entity name.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the attributes are entity attributes.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the attributes include gender, employment, cost, or name.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising:

locating in an entity database one or more records that match the entity;

including the entity attributes associated with matching records in the search engine results page for display on the user device; and

receiving a selection of the entity or entity attributes to refine the query.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the feedback is received from users that are logged in to one or more services associated with the search engine.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the services include a social network application, messaging application, or an email application.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

modifying the groups based on feedback that adds one or more search results to the groups or removes one or more search results from the groups.

6-7. -7. (canceled)

11. One or more hardware computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon for performing a method to refine search results returned by a search engine, the method comprising:

receiving a user query by the search engine;

determining whether a client is in public mode or private mode, wherein the private mode is enabled when the user is logged in to one or more services associated with the search engine and public mode is enabled when the user is not logged in to the one or more services associated with the search engine;

when the user is in public mode, providing a public set of search results that match the query; and

when the user is in private mode, providing a private set of search results that match the query and profile information associated with the one or more services that user is logged-in to and ranking the private set of search results based on the match between the search results and user profile attributes maintained by the one or more services.

12. The media of claim 11, wherein the private set of search results and public set of search results are associated with intents based on representative terms included in prior queries and click frequencies associated with the private and public sets of search results as recorded in a query log.

13. The media of claim 12, wherein, in private mode, the click frequencies and prior queries are associated with the user that is logged in to the one or more services.

14. The media of claim 12, further comprising:

grouping the private set of search results and public set of search results based on intents.

15. The media of claim 12, wherein the intents include entity name or entity attributes.

16. The media of claim 15, further comprising:

matching the user profile attributes with entity attributes.

17. A computer system configured to provide search results, the computer system comprising:

a memory storing entities and corresponding content; and

a processor communicatively connected to the memory and configured to execute the following;

(1) an intent detector component to determine representative terms based on a user query, search results corresponding to the user query, and click frequencies associated with the search results,

(2) a ranker component that ranks the search results based on the representative terms associated with the user query, and

(3) a presenter component to group the search results based on the representative terms for display on a client device.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the representative terms correspond to an entity or attributes of an entity.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the search results are tagged with the entity or entity attributes.

20. The system of claim 17, further comprising a feedback component that receives user modifications to groups.