System for improving search text
First Claim
1. A method for improving searching of a computer, the method comprising:
- (a) retrieving a search query comprising text having at least one logical operator provided by a user;
(b) locating an ambiguity in the search query caused by the logical operator, wherein locating an ambiguity comprises locating a relationship that creates an ambiguity as to whether the user wants items that have both a first term and a second term or whether the user wants items that have either the first term or the second term;
(c) requesting additional information from the user to clarify the text of the search query; and
(d) replacing the logical operator in the user text with a different logical operator based on the additional information.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A computer-readable medium has computer-executable instructions for retrieving a search query provided by a user and locating an ambiguity in the search query that affects the optimization of the search query. The instructions also provide for requesting additional information from the user to clarify the text of the search query. Additional aspects of the invention allow the user to see and select past search queries. Further aspects of the invention automatically construct a boolean search query from a non-boolean query. Other aspects of the invention modify a search query based on its scope. In one embodiment of the invention a search query is modified based on natural language parse data produced by performing a natural language parse of the search query.
482 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for improving searching of a computer, the method comprising:
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(a) retrieving a search query comprising text having at least one logical operator provided by a user;
(b) locating an ambiguity in the search query caused by the logical operator, wherein locating an ambiguity comprises locating a relationship that creates an ambiguity as to whether the user wants items that have both a first term and a second term or whether the user wants items that have either the first term or the second term;
(c) requesting additional information from the user to clarify the text of the search query; and
(d) replacing the logical operator in the user text with a different logical operator based on the additional information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A method for improving searching of a computer, the method comprising:
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(a) retrieving a search query comprising text provided by a user;
(b) locating an ambiguity in the search query as to the media types of the items to be searched for; and
(c) requesting additional information from the user to clarify the text of the search query. - View Dependent Claims (5)
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6. In a computer system having a display, a method of producing a series of screens on the display, the method comprising:
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(a) producing a search solicitation screen to solicit a search query from a user;
(b) producing a disambiguation screen based on an ambiguity caused by a connecting term between a first term and a second term in the search query, the disambiguation screen comprising a request for additional information to clarify whether the user intended to find documents that have both a first term and a second term or documents that have either the first term or the second term.
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7. In a computer system having a display, a method of producing a series of screens on the display, the method comprising:
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(a) producing a search solicitation screen to solicit a search query from a user;
(b) producing a disambiguation screen based on an ambiguity in the search query, producing the disambiguation screen comprising displaying a request for additional information to clarify whether the user wanted documents represented in a particular media type.
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8. A method for changing the format of user'"'"'s search query comprising:
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(a) retrieving a free text search query comprising input terms from a user, the free text search query having no logical operators;
(b) identifying two possible logical operators to place between two input terms of the free text search query, wherein one of the logical operators is a near logical operator; and
(c) asking the user a question to determine which of the two logical operators to insert to construct a logical function query. - View Dependent Claims (9)
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10. A method for changing the format of user'"'"'s search query comprising:
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(a) retrieving a free text search query comprising input terms from a user;
(b) identifying a search engine where the search query is to be applied, the search engine capable of performing a search using a query;
(c) identifying a logical operator to place between two input terms;
(d) selecting a character-based representation of the logical operator from a set of possible character-based representations of the logical operator based on the identified search engine; and
(e) inserting the character-based representation of the logical operator between the two input terms to construct a logical function query.
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11. A method for changing the format of user'"'"'s search query comprising:
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(a) retrieving a free text search query comprising input terms from a user;
(b) identifying a part of speech for at least two input terms;
(c) identifying a logical operator to place between two input terms based on the input terms'"'"' parts of speech;
(d) inserting the logical operator between the two input terms to construct a logical function query;
(e) generating inflected forms of input terms; and
(f) adding the inflected forms to the logical function query, wherein inflected forms of an input term that is either in a noun adjective relationship with another input term or a generic modifying relationship with another input term are not added to the logical function query.
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12. A method for changing the format of a search query comprising:
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(a) retrieving a free text search query comprising input terms from a user;
(b) performing a natural language parse of the search query to produce natural language parse data comprising an indication of inflected forms of terms in the free text search query and an indication of which terms in the free text search query are modifying terms that modify other terms;
(c) constructing a logical query from the natural language parse data comprising not including the inflected forms of a modifying term in the logical query. - View Dependent Claims (13)
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14. A method for changing the format of a search query comprising:
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(a) retrieving a free text search query comprising input terms from a user;
(b) performing a natural language parse of the search query to produce natural language parse data;
(c) determining a search engine over which a logical query will be applied, the search engine capable of performing a search using the logical query;
(d) selecting at least one character-based representation of a logical operator from a set of character-based representations of the logical operator based on the search engine; and
(e) constructing a logical query from the natural language parse using the selected character-based representation of the logical operator.
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15. A method for improving a search query of a computer system, the method comprising:
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(a) receiving a search query from a user;
(b) identifying a scope of a search by performing one of a set of steps comprising;
(i)counting the number of terms in the search query;
(ii)examining the user'"'"'s past searches to determine if the user has entered similar search queries in the past;
(iii)determining whether at least one scope term is in the search query; and
(c) modifying the search query based on the scope. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17)
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18. A method for modifying a search query for searching a computerized system, the method comprising:
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(a) receiving a search query from a user;
(b) performing a natural language parse on the search query to form natural language parse data;
(c) modifying the search query based on the natural language parse data to form a modified search query, wherein modifying the search query comprises removing a term that describes a property of the information desired by the user and that is related to the media type of the information; and
(d) sending the modified search query to a search area.
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19. A computer-readable medium for a computer system having computer-executable components comprising:
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(a) a search solicitation component capable of producing a display to solicit a search query from a user;
(b) a natural language parsing component capable of performing a natural language parse of the search query to produce natural language parse data; and
(c) a search query modification component capable of modifying the search query based on the natural language parse data to remove a term that describes a property of information desired by the user, wherein the term that is removed is related to a media type.
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20. A method for improving searching of a computer, the method comprising:
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(a) retrieving a search query comprising text having at least one negation logical operator provided by a user;
(b) locating an ambiguity in the search query caused by the negation logical operator, wherein locating an ambiguity comprises locating a relationship that creates an ambiguity as to whether the user wishes to exclude items that include certain text;
(c) requesting additional information from the user to clarify the text of the search query; and
(d) replacing the negation logical operator in the user text with a different logical operator based on the additional information.
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Specification