SEARCH SYSTEM WITH QUERY REFINEMENT AND SEARCH METHOD

• US 20160140237A1
• Filed: 01/22/2016
• Published: 05/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TextDigger, Inc.
• Original Assignee: TextDigger, Inc.
• Inventors: Musgrove, Timothy A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,928,299 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2423 Interactive query statement specification based on a database schema
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3338 Query expansion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

A search system and method for searching for electronic documents, and providing a search result in response to a search query. In one embodiment, the search system includes a processor, a user interface module adapted to receive a search query from a user that includes a search query term, a search engine that electronically searches for electronic documents that satisfy the search query term, and a query processing module that identifies at least one alternative term for the search query term, and provides the alternative term to the user interface module for display to the user, and also provides the alternative term to the search engine to search for electronic documents that satisfy the alternative term.

Claims

1. A search system for searching for electronic documents, and providing a search result in response to a search query, comprising:

a processor;

a database, wherein terms in the database are grouped in a cluster based on the terms belonging to a same word sense;

a user interface module adapted to receive a search query from a user, said search query having at least two search query terms;

a query processing module that automatically determines a single, assumed word sense for one of the search query terms of the at least two search query terms selected from a list of retrieved senses for the search query term based on other search query terms of the at least two search query terms, wherein the query processing module identifies a plurality of any available alternative terms for the one of the search query terms from a cluster based on the determined sense, wherein the alternative terms include any available synonyms that are within the determined sense;

a search engine that electronically searches for electronic documents that satisfy said determined sense of said at least one search query term; and

wherein said user interface module is further adapted to display search results received from the search engine.

2. The search system of claim 1, wherein said search engine executes a search based on said search query term and said plurality of any available alternative terms simultaneously.

3. The search system of claim 2, wherein said user interface only displays said search results that satisfy at least one search query term and ranks said search results based at least in part on whether said search results satisfy said any available alternative terms.

4. The search system of claim 1, wherein said processing module automatically determines the single assumed word sense utilizing a part of speech tagger.

5. The search system of claim 1, wherein said processing module automatically determines the single assumed word sense utilizing a database of word senses linked to contextual words.

6. The search system of claim 1, wherein said processing module automatically determines the single assumed word sense based whether the search query terms overlap previous search queries for the word sense.

7. The search system of claim 1, wherein said cluster is a collection of words grouped together based on having similar usage patterns.

8. The search system of claim 1, wherein documents that satisfy said determined sense of said at least one search query term are determined by context words around the word hits.

9. A computer implemented search method for electronically searching documents, and providing a search result in response to a search query, comprising:

receiving, using a user interface module controlled by a computer processor, a search query from a user, said search query having at least two search query terms;

electronically and automatically determining, using a query processing module controlled by a computer processor, a single, assumed sense of one term of the at least two search query terms selected form a list of retrieved senses for the one search query term based on other search query terms of the at least two search query terms;

electronically identifying, using the query processing module controlled by a computer processor, a plurality of available alternative terms from a cluster of terms belonging to a same word sense for the at least one search query term based on the determined sense, wherein the plurality of available alternative terms include any available synonyms within the determined sense; and

electronically executing a search, using a search engine, for electronic documents that satisfy at least the one of the at least two search query terms and the plurality of available alternative terms.

10. The search method of claim 9, further including executing the search based on said search query term and said plurality of available alternative terms simultaneously.

11. The search method of claim 10, further including displaying for the user, a part-of-speech in which said at least one search query term is presumed to be used.

12. The search method of claim 9, wherein said processing module automatically determines the single assumed word sense utilizing a part of speech tagger.

13. The search method of claim 9, wherein said processing module automatically determines the single assumed word sense utilizing a database of word senses linked to contextual words

14. The search method of claim 9, wherein said processing module automatically determines the single assumed word sense based whether the search query terms overlap previous search queries for the word sense.

15. A computer readable hardware medium with executable instructions stored thereon, which when executed by a computer processor, cause said computer to execute a method for searching for electronic documents, and providing a search result in response to a search query, the method comprising:

receiving a search query from a user, said search query having at least two search query terms;

electronically and automatically determining a single, assumed sense of one term of the at least two search query terms selected form a list of retrieved senses for the one search query term based on other search query terms of the at least two search query terms;

electronically identifying a plurality of available alternative terms from a cluster of terms belonging to a same word sense for the at least one search query term based on the determined sense, wherein the plurality of available alternative terms include any available synonyms within the determined sense; and

electronically executing a search for electronic documents that satisfy at least one of said search query term and the plurality of alternative terms.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising executing the search based on said search query term and said plurality of available alternative terms simultaneously.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising displaying for the user, a part-of-speech in which said at least one search query term is presumed to be used.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising automatically determining the single assumed word sense utilizing a part of speech tagger.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising automatically determining the single assumed word sense utilizing a database of word senses linked to contextual words.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising automatically determining the single assumed word sense based whether the search query terms overlap previous search queries for the word sense.