Search Method and Apparatus

• US 20130339369A1
• Filed: 06/17/2013
• Published: 12/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Inventors: Zheng, Wei, Jin, Huaxing, Lin, Feng, Li, Yaobing
• Application Number:
  US13/919,657
• Publication Number:
  US 20130339369A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/742
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/319 Inverted lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

The present disclosure provides techniques to solve problems (e.g., the low efficiency and a waste of resources) derived from conventional methods. These techniques may include extracting, by a computing device, the first N keywords appearing the most in target information published by target users as target words, and creating an inverted index based on information on a page of the target users and the target words, wherein the inverted index includes a target field and a page information field, and N is an integer. The computing device may receive an inquiry phrase and determine target users matching the inquiry phrase in the inverted index based on the inquiry phrase. The computing device may calculate a relevance between the matched target users and the inquiry phrase through the target field and the page information field, and return a certain result based on the relevance.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for searching, the method comprising:

extracting, by a server, multiple keywords to generate target words, the multiple keywords being determined based on occurrences of the multiple keywords in target information published by multiple target users;

creating an inverted index based on the target words and page information of the multiple target users, the inverted index including a target field and a page information field;

receiving a query including a phrase;

finding one or more target users of the multiple target users in the inverted index using the phrase;

determining relevance between the one or more target users and the phrase based on one or more corresponding target fields and page information fields in the inverted index; and

sorting the one or more target users according to the relevance.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein numbers of the occurrences of the multiple keywords are greater than numbers of occurrences of other keywords in the target information.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the extracting the multiple keywords to generate the target words comprises:

obtaining target word databases from the target information published by the multiple target users;

extracting keywords from the target word databases based on a preset condition;

calculating numbers of occurrences of the keywords; and

extracting the multiple keywords from the keywords.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising:

calculating a ratio between occurrences a keyword and accumulated occurrences of the keywords; and

assigning the ratio as a target factor of the keyword.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the determining the relevance comprising determining the relevance by:

determining a matching level based on a target field and a page information field; and

making a weighted summation of match levels associated with the one or more corresponding target fields and the page information fields in the inverted index.

6. The computer-implemented method as recited claim 1, wherein the multiple target users include suppliers of an item, the target information including information about the item, the target words include main product words.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the target information is product titles, and the extracting the multiple keywords to generate the target words comprises:

obtaining product titles from the product information published;

extracting the keywords from the product titles based on a preset grammatical rule;

calculating occurrences of the keywords in the product titles; and

obtaining the multiple keywords from the keywords based on the occurrences to generate the target words.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the target field includes a main product field, the multiple target users include suppliers of an item, and the determining the relevance between the one or more target users and the phrase comprises:

determining a matching level of the main product field and the page information field with the phrase in terms of word level;

determining a matching level of the main product field and the page information field with the phrase in terms of semantic level; and

determining the relevance between the suppliers and the phrase by making a weighted summation of match levels.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising pre-processing the phrase, and the pre-processing comprises at least one of:

deleting invalid characters of the phrase;

extracting a plurality of keywords from the phrase based on preset grammatical rules;

deleting a word root of the phrase;

or

identifying a national geography information of the phrase.

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

pre-processing information pages by deleting invalid characters from information on the page, or deleting one word root from the information on the page.

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

extracting the page information field from the pre-processed page, wherein the page information field comprises at least one of a main product field, a nation field, a company address field, or a company name field.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising:

calculating a corresponding matching level when the page information field is determined to match the phrase in terms of a word level; and

calculating a corresponding match level through a main product factor when the main product field is determined to match the phrase in terms of the word level.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising:

calculating a corresponding match level when the page information field is determined to match keywords of the phrase in terms of a semantic level; and

calculating a corresponding match level through a main product factor when the main product field is determined to match keywords of the phrase in terms of the semantic level.

14. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory to maintain a plurality of components executable by the one or more processors, the plurality of components comprising;

an obtaining and creating module configured to;

extract, by a server, multiple keywords to generate target words, the multiple keywords being determined based on occurrences of the multiple keywords in target information published by multiple target users, and

create an inverted index based on the target words and page information of the multiple target users, the inverted index including a target field and a page information field,

a receiving module configured to receive an phrase,

a finding module configured to find one or more target users of the multiple target users in the inverted index using the phrase, and

a sorting module configured to;

determine relevance between the one or more target users and the phrase based on one or more corresponding target fields and page information fields in the inverted index; and

sort the one or more target users according to the relevance.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein numbers of the occurrences of the multiple keywords are greater than numbers of occurrences of other keywords in the target information.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the extracting the multiple keywords to generate the target words comprises:

obtaining target word databases from the target information published by the multiple target users;

extracting keywords from the target word databases based on a preset condition;

calculating numbers of occurrences of the keywords; and

extracting the multiple keywords from the keywords.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the sorting module is configured to further:

calculate a ratio between occurrences a keyword and accumulated occurrences of the keywords; and

assign the ratio as a target factor of the keyword.

18. One or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, instruct the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:

receiving a query including a phrase;

determining one or more users in the inverted index using the phrase, wherein the inverted index is created by;

extracting multiple keywords from messages based on occurrences of the multiple keywords, the messages being published by multiple users in a community;

creating an inverted index based on the multiple keywords and information provided by the multiple users in web pages associated with the multiple users;

determining relevant parameters between the one or more users and the phrase based on corresponding information in the inverted index; and

sorting the one or more users based on the relevant parameters.

19. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 18, wherein numbers of the occurrences of the multiple keywords are greater than numbers of occurrences of other keywords in the messages.

20. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 18, where the acts further comprise pre-processing the phrase by:

deleting invalid characters of the phrase;

extracting a plurality of keywords from the phrase based on preset grammatical rules;

deleting a word root of the phrase; and

identifying a national geography information of the phrase, and the determining the one or more users of the multiple users in the inverted index using the phrase comprises determining the one or more users of the multiple users in the inverted index based on the pre-processed phrase.