GENERATING LOGICAL EXPRESSIONS FOR SEARCH QUERIES

• US 20150142790A1
• Filed: 01/27/2015
• Published: 05/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sankar, Sriram, Stout, Ryan Allen, Jackson, Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 9,721,025 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/728
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/242 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9032 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9536 Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method comprises, by a computer system, receiving a search term, determining a search constraint for a search query, and generating a search query. The search query includes the search term and the search constraint. The search query requires that at least a first number of search results that are returned in response to the search query match both the search term and the search constraint. The search query permits at least a second number of the search results to match only the search term. The computer system provides the search query for a search against a store of data.

Claims

1. A method comprising, by a computing system:

receiving, from a client device of a first user of an online social network, a search request comprising one or more terms;

generating a plurality of queries based on the search request, wherein each query is associated with a particular object type;

searching, for each query, a vertical of an online social-networking system storing objects of the particular object type associated with the query to identify one or more objects matching the query; and

sending, to the client device of the first user, a search-results page responsive to the search request, the search-results page comprising a plurality of search results, wherein, for each query, at least one search result corresponds to an identified object of the particular object type associated with the query.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein an object type comprises one of a user, place, group, photo, post, page, or application.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising aggregating the identified objects across the verticals, wherein the plurality of search results are determined based on the aggregation.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, for each vertical, ranking the objects stored in the vertical based on a relative importance of the objects.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein, for each vertical, the one or more objects matching the query are identified based on the ranking.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the online social network comprises a social graph 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 the first user of the online social network;

a plurality of second nodes respectively corresponding to a plurality of objects, each object being stored in a particular vertical associated with the object type of the object.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein, for each object, the ranking is based on a number of edges connecting a second node corresponding to the object to another node in the social graph.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising, for each vertical, dynamically ranking the objects stored in the vertical based on the search request.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein, for each vertical, the one or more objects matching the query are identified based on the dynamic ranking.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein each vertical is indexed by a respective search index.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the searching further comprises executing each query on the respective search index of the vertical storing objects of the particular object type associated with the query to identify one or more objects matching the query.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein each query comprises some or all of the terms of the search request.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one query comprises a logical operator, at least one search term of the search request, a search constraint, and an associated weight.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the search constraint is determined for the at least one term of the at least one query based on social-networking information of the first user.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the associated weight provides a limit on a number of identified objects for the at least one query that must match the search constraint.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one query permits at least a portion of the identified objects for the at least one query to match only the at least one term.

17. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media in one or more computing systems, the media embodying logic that is operable when executed to:

receive, from a client device of a first user of an online social network, a search request comprising one or more terms;

generate a plurality of queries based on the search request, wherein each query is associated with a particular object type;

search, for each query, a vertical of an online social-networking system storing objects of the particular object type associated with the query to identify one or more objects matching the query; and

send, to the client device of the first user, a search-results page responsive to the search request, the search-results page comprising a plurality of search results, wherein, for each query, at least one search result corresponds to an identified object of the particular object type associated with the query.

18. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

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

receive, from a client device of a first user of an online social network, a search request comprising one or more terms;

generate a plurality of queries based on the search request, wherein each query is associated with a particular object type;

search, for each query, a vertical of an online social-networking system storing objects of the particular object type associated with the query to identify one or more objects matching the query; and

send, to the client device of the first user, a search-results page responsive to the search request, the search-results page comprising a plurality of search results, wherein, for each query, at least one search result corresponds to an identified object of the particular object type associated with the query.