Interactive intelligent searching with executable suggestions

• US 6,578,022 B1
• Filed: 04/18/2000
• Issued: 06/10/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Byteweavr, LLC (Ascend Innovation Management, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Icplanet Corporation
• Inventors: Foulger, Michael G., Gaul, Matthew J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Black; Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hirl; Joseph P.
• Application Number:
  US09/551,533
• Time in Patent Office: 1,148 Days
• Field of Search: 706/45,46,11 707/104,10,3
• US Class Current: 706/45
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 706/934 Information retrieval or Information management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A method, system, and computer program product for interactive searching with executable suggestions are provided. The present invention provides a search engine and data management technology that can understand what users are looking for, understand the data in a database, and present immediately useful suggestions for finding the right information. Executable suggestions are presented that enable a user to further narrow or broaden a search intelligently and adaptively in real-time. Each executable suggestion describes a search and corresponding search criteria and provides information on the actual search results a user will obtain according to this search criteria. In one embodiment of the present invention, a system has a suggestion engine and one or more suggestion spaces.

Claims

1. A system for interactive, intelligent searching ofdata elements in a knowledge base, the knowledge base including data elements in multiple search dimensions, comprising:

a suggestion engine; and

a suggestion space, coupled to said suggestion engine, said suggestion space having at least one data structure representative of relationships between data elements in the knowledge base;

wherein said suggestion engine interrogates the suggestion space based on received scope change-search criteria to obtain scope change search results and returns a smart tip that represents said scope change search results;

whereby an executable suggestion can be provided to a user based on the smart tip.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the search criteria indicates whether a tip for a broader or narrower search is to be generated, and wherein said suggestion engine interrogates the suggestion space looking for broader or narrower search results in accordance with the value of the received search criteria.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the data elements in the knowledge base data include job posting and IC profile data, and wherein the smart tip includes scope change search criteria, node and search results information, whereby, the executable suggestion can be displayed to user to query the user whether a broader or narrower search is to be executed given the returned node and search results information.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said suggestion space includes suggestion tables.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein said suggestion tables comprise at least one taxonomy.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said suggestion space includes suggestion tables stored in the knowledge base and an in-memory suggestion space stored in memory, said in-memory suggestion space representing a copy of at least a portion of said suggestion tables.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said suggestion space includes:

a suggestion space populator; and

a suggestion space updater, said suggestion space populator and said suggestion space updater each being coupled between said suggestion tables and said in-memory suggestion space.

8. The system of claim 4, further comprising a suggestion structure builder coupled between the knowledge base and the suggestion tables, said suggestion structure builder receiving an input from a knowledge expert and generating an output to modify the suggestion tables in accordance with the received Jun. 27, 2002 input.

9. The system of claim 4, further comprising a knowledge base suggestion mapper coupled between the knowledge base and the suggestion tables to map data in the knowledge base to a corresponding location in the suggestion tables.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a query builder, coupled to said suggestion engine;

a tip formatter;

a tip interface, coupled between said tip formatter and said suggestion engine;

a smart domain module Jun. 27, 2002;

a searchable interface coupled between said suggestion engine and said smart domain module.

11. A method for interactive searching, comprising the steps of:

receiving a search query;

identifying at least one parameter in the search query that corresponds to a dimension in a suggestion space;

interrogating the suggestion space to determine scope change search results based on a scope change search criteria; and

creating a smart tip that represents the scope change search results;

whereby an executable suggestion can be provided to a user based on the smart tip.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the scope change search criteria indicates whether a tip for a broader or narrower search is to be generated, and wherein said interrogating step interrogates the suggestion space looking for broader or narrower search results in accordance with the value of the scope change search criteria.