System for fulfilling an information need
First Claim
1. A method of fulfilling an information need based on documents and an index stored on a computer-readable medium comprising the steps of:
- receiving a query containing a word and a symbol that matches any term;
identifying one or more documents in the index containing the word;
locating one or more different terms at a location of the symbol in the query within the identified one or more documents; and
ranking the located one or more different terms using a metric related to the number of times in all of the identified documents the one or more terms was located, wherein the metric is the number of times the one or more terms was located in all of the identified documents.
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Abstract
The invention offers new approaches to fulfilling an information need, in particular to finding a result for a query based on a large body of information such as a collection of documents. The invention accepts a query containing an unspecified portion that expresses the information need. The invention locates matches for the query within a body of information and returns the matches or portions thereof in addition to or instead of identifiers for documents in which the matches are found. The invention ranks the matches in order to provide the most relevant information. One preferred method of ranking considers the number of instances of a match among a plurality of documents. The invention further defines a new type of index that includes contexts in which terms occur and provides methods of searching such indices to fulfill an information need.
233 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method of fulfilling an information need based on documents and an index stored on a computer-readable medium comprising the steps of:
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receiving a query containing a word and a symbol that matches any term;
identifying one or more documents in the index containing the word;
locating one or more different terms at a location of the symbol in the query within the identified one or more documents; and
ranking the located one or more different terms using a metric related to the number of times in all of the identified documents the one or more terms was located, wherein the metric is the number of times the one or more terms was located in all of the identified documents. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of fulfilling an information need based on contexts in documents and an index stored on a computer readable medium comprising the steps of:
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receiving a query containing a word and a symbol that matches any term;
identifying one or more documents having a context containing the word, wherein the context comprises one or more terms surrounding the word;
locating one or more different terms at a location of the symbol in the query within the identified one or more contexts within the documents; and
ranking the located one or more different terms using a metric related to the number of times in all of the identified documents the one or more terms was located, wherein the metric is the number of times the one or more terms was located in all of the identified documents. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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17. Computer-executable process steps stored on a computer-readable medium, the computer-executable process steps to fulfill an information need based on documents and an index also stored on a computer-readable medium, the computer-executable process steps comprising:
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code to receive a query containing a word and a symbol that matches any term;
code to identify one or more documents in the index containing the word;
code to locate one or more different terms at a location of the symbol in the query within the identified one or more documents; and
code to rank the located one or more different terms using a metric related to the number of times in all of the identified documents the one or more terms was located, wherein the metric is the number of times the one or more terms was located in all of the identified documents.
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Specification