Search Result Snippets for Structured Search Queries

• US 20140188862A1
• Filed: 03/14/2013
• Published: 07/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Lars Eilstrup Rasmussen
• Inventors: Campbell, Craig S., Rasmussen, Lars Eilstrup, Peiris, Keith
• Granted Patent: US 9,703,844 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/728
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24522 Translation of natural language queries to structured queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/211 Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a social graph that includes a plurality of nodes and edges, receiving a structured query that includes references to selected nodes and edges, and generating search results corresponding to the structured query, where the search results include at least one snippet that includes references to the selected nodes and edges of the structured query.

Claims

1. A method comprising, by a computing device:

accessing a graph data structure of an online social network, the graph data structure comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of the nodes representing a single degree of separation between them, the nodes comprising;

a first node corresponding to a first user associated with the online social network; and

a plurality of second nodes that each correspond to a concept or a second user associated with the online social network;

receiving from the first user a structured query comprising references to one or more selected nodes from the plurality of second nodes and one or more selected edges from the plurality of edges; and

generating one or more search results corresponding to the structured query, wherein each search result corresponds to a second node of the plurality of second nodes, each search result comprising one or more snippets, each snippet comprising contextual information about the second node corresponding to the search result, wherein at least one of the snippets of each search result comprises one or more references to the selected nodes and the selected edges of the structured query.

2. The methods of claim 1, wherein generating one or more search results corresponding to the structured query comprises:

identifying one or more second nodes corresponding to the structured query;

accessing, for each identified second node, one or more snippets corresponding to the identified second node, each snippet comprising contextual information about the identified second node;

determining, for each identified second node, a score for each snippet corresponding to the identified second node; and

generating, for each identified second node, a search result corresponding to the identified second node, each search result comprising one or more snippets having a score greater than a snippet-threshold score.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining a score for each snippet is based on a social relevance of the snippet to the structured query.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein determining a score for each snippet is based on a textual relevance of the snippet to the structured query.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein determining a score for each snippet is based on a search history associated with the first user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the snippets of each search result comprises a customized structured query comprising a reference to the second node corresponding to the search result.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein each customized structured query further comprises a reference to one or more of the selected nodes or one or more of the selected edges.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the snippets of each search result comprises a reference to one or more second nodes, each second node being connected to the first node by one or more edges of the plurality of edges.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each search result corresponds to a second node that is connected to one or more of the selected nodes by one or more of the selected edges.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein each search result is associated with a profile page of the online social network.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein at least one of the snippets of each search result comprises information from the profile page associated with the search result.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein, for each snippet comprising references to selected nodes or selected edges, one or more of the references of the snippet is highlighted to indicate the reference corresponds to a selected node or a selected edge.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending one or more of the search results to the first user.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein sending one or more of the search results to the first user comprises sending the one or more search results to a third-party system for presentation to the first user in response to receiving from the third-party system a call through an application programming interface associated with the online social network.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the structured query is received from a client system associated with the first user.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the structured query is received from a third-party system via a call through an application programming interface associated with the online social network.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising sending one or more of the search results to the third-party system in response to the call.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the structured query is received from a third-party system via a communication channel associated with the online social network.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of nodes are stored as a first plurality of data objects of graph data structure, respectively, and the plurality of edges are stored as a second plurality of data objects of the graph data structure, respectively.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein each selected nodes referenced in the structured query is connected to at least one of the selected edges referenced in the structured query.

19. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:

access a graph data structure of an online social network, the graph data structure comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of the nodes representing a single degree of separation between them, the nodes comprising;

a first node corresponding to a first user associated with the online social network; and

a plurality of second nodes that each correspond to a concept or a second user associated with the online social network;

receive from the first user a structured query comprising references to one or more selected nodes from the plurality of second nodes and one or more selected edges from the plurality of edges; and

generate one or more search results corresponding to the structured query, wherein each search result corresponds to a second node of the plurality of second nodes, each search result comprising one or more snippets, each snippet comprising contextual information about the second node corresponding to the search result, wherein at least one of the snippets of each search result comprises one or more references to the selected nodes and the selected edges of the structured query.

20. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors operable when executing the instructions to;

access a graph data structure of an online social network, the graph data structure comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of the nodes representing a single degree of separation between them, the nodes comprising;

a first node corresponding to a first user associated with the online social network; and

a plurality of second nodes that each correspond to a concept or a second user associated with the online social network;

receive from the first user a structured query comprising references to one or more selected nodes from the plurality of second nodes and one or more selected edges from the plurality of edges; and

generate one or more search results corresponding to the structured query, wherein each search result corresponds to a second node of the plurality of second nodes, each search result comprising one or more snippets, each snippet comprising contextual information about the second node corresponding to the search result, wherein at least one of the snippets of each search result comprises one or more references to the selected nodes and the selected edges of the structured query.