Techniques for web site integration

• US 6,912,525 B1
• Filed: 05/08/2000
• Issued: 06/28/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Laboratories Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Ponte, Jay, Getchius, Jeffrey, Chipalkatti, Renu
• Primary Examiner(s): Robinson, Greta
• Assistant Examiner(s): PANNALA, SATHYANARAYA R
• Application Number:
  US09/566,511
• Time in Patent Office: 1,877 Days
• Field of Search: 707 2- 5, 707102-103 R, 709/203
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/334 Query execution G06F16/335 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/955 Object-oriented
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

Disclosed is a method and device for finding documents, such as Web pages, for presentation to a user, automatically or in response to a user expression of interest, which documents are part of a Web site being accessed by the user, and which documents relate to a document, such as a Web page, being accessed in the Web site. The method takes advantage of information retrieval techniques. The method generates the search query to use to find documents by reference to the text of the document in the Web site being accessed by the user. The method further uses a weighting function to weigh the terms used in the search query.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

(a) creating a search query in response to a user accessing a document in a Web site, the search query comprising

terms in the document, and

index terms which have been manually assigned to the document,

 

where said terms in the document and said index terms are included in said search query without user intervention;

(b) applying the search query to a collection of documents contained in the Web site; and

(c) presenting to the user documents in the collection which achieve the highest scores on the search query,

wherein the presented documents are selected from the collection of documents according to scores achieved when evaluating documents in the collection according to a formula giving scores to documents depending upon an occurrence in the documents of terms which occur in the document accessed by the user, and the determination of the documents in the collection which receive the highest scores is carried out using compressed document surrogates.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the search query is created and applied, and the results presented to the user, automatically when a user accesses the document in the Web site.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the search query is created and applied, and the results presented to the user, in response to a request from the user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the documents are Web pages.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a predetermined number of documents are selected.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the predetermined number of documents is 100.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein all documents with scores exceeding a predetermined cutoff value are selected.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a score S_D of a document D in the collection may be determined by crediting the document D, for each term T in the document accessed by the user which occurs in the document D, with an amount proportional to Robertson'"'"'s term frequency TF_TD and to IDF_T where

TF_TD=N_TD/(N_TD+K₁+K₂*(L_D/L₀)), and

N_TD is the number of times the term T occurs in document D,

L_D is the length of document D,

L₀ is the average length of a document in the Web site,

K₁ and K₂ are constants, and

IDF_T=log((N+K₃)/N_T)/log(N+K₄), and

N is the number of documents in the Web site,

N_T is the number of documents containing the term T in the Web site, and

K₃ and K₄ are constants.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein K₁ is 0.5, K₂ is 1.5, K₃ is 0.5, and K₄ is 1.0.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the score given to a document, as a result of containing a term which occurs in the document accessed by the user, depends upon how often the term occurs in the document accessed by the user, compared to how often the term occurs in the documents in the Web site.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein a score S_D of a document D in the collection may be determined by crediting the document D, for each term T in the document accessed by the user which occurs in the document D, with an amount proportional to W_T, to Robertson'"'"'s term frequency TF_TD and to IDF_T where

W_T=log(P_T(R)/P_T()),

where

P_T(R)=a probability that the term T occurs in the document accessed by the user,

=N_TR/(Σ

_RN_tR), where

N_TR=a number of occurrences of the term T in the document accessed by the user

Σ

_RN_tR=a total number of occurrences of terms in the document accessed by the user

P_T()=a probability that the term T occurs in the Web site,

=N_T/(Σ

N_t), where

N_T=a number of occurrences of the term T in the Web site

Σ

N_t=a total number of occurrences of terms in the Web site,

TF_TD=N_TD/(N_TD+K₁+K₂*(L_D/L₀)), and

N_TD is the number of times the term T occurs in document D,

L_D is the length of document D,

L₀ is the average length of a document in the Web site,

K₁ and K₂ are constants, and

IDF_T=log((N+K₃)/N_T)/log(N+K₄), and

N is the number of documents in the Web site,

N_T is the number of documents containing the term T in the Web site, and

K₃ and K₄ are constants.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein K₁ is 0.5, K₂ is 1.5, K₃ is 0.5, and K₄ is 1.0.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the documents chosen are selected from the collection of documents according to the scores achieved when evaluating documents in the collection according to a formula giving scores to documents depending upon an occurrence in the documents of index terms manually assigned to the document accessed by the user.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the score given to a document, as a result of containing a term which occurs in the document accessed by the user, or an index term assigned to the document accessed, depends upon how often the term occurs in the document accessed by the user, compared to how often the term occurs in the documents in the Web site.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the score given to a document, as a result of containing a term which occurs in the document accessed by the user, depends upon how often the term occurs in the document accessed by the user, compared to how often the term occurs in the documents in the Web site, and the score given to a document, as a result of containing an index term assigned to the document accessed, depends upon a weight assigned to the index term.

16. A device, comprising:

(a) means for creating a search query in response to a user accessing a document in a Web site, the search query comprising

terms in the document, and

index terms which have been manually assigned to the document,

 

where said terms in the document and said index terms are included in said search query without user intervention;

(b) means for applying the search query to a collection of documents contained in the Web site; and

(c) means for presenting to the user documents in the collection which achieve the highest scores on the search query,

wherein the presented documents are selected from the collection of documents according to scores achieved when evaluating documents in the collection according to a formula giving scores to documents depending upon an occurrence in the documents of terms which occur in the document accessed by the user, and the determination of the documents in the collection which receive the highest scores is carried out using compressed document surrogates.

17. The device of claim 16, wherein the search query is created and applied, and the results presented to the user, automatically when a user accesses the document in the Web site.

18. The device of claim 16, wherein the search query is created and applied, and the results presented to the user, in response to a request from the user.

19. The device of claim 16, wherein the documents are Web pages.

20. The device of claim 16, wherein a predetermined number of documents are selected.

21. The device of claim 20, wherein the predetermined number of documents is 100.

22. The device of claim 16, wherein all documents with scores exceeding a predetermined cutoff value are selected.

23. The device of claim 16, wherein a score S_D of a document D in the collection may be determined by crediting the document D, for each term T in the document accessed by the user which occurs in the document D, with an amount proportional to Robertson'"'"'s term frequency TF_TD and to IDF_T where

TF_TD=N_TD/(N_TD+K₁+K₂*(L_D/L₀)), and

N_TD is the number of times the term T occurs in document D,

L_D is the length of document D,

L₀ is the average length of a document in the Web site,

K₁ and K₂ are constants, and

IDF_T=log((N+K₃)/N_T)/log(N+K₄), and

N is the number of documents in the Web site,

N_T is the number of documents containing the term T in the Web site, and

K₃ and K₄ are constants.

24. The device of claim 23, wherein K₁ is 0.5, K₂ is 1.5, K₃ is 0.5, and K₄ is 1.0.

25. The device of claim 16, wherein the score given to a document, as a result of containing a term which occurs in the document accessed by the user, depends upon how often the term occurs in the document accessed by the user, compared to how often the term occurs in the documents in the Web site.

26. The device of claim 25, wherein a score S_D of a document D in the collection may be determined by crediting the document D, for each term T in the document accessed by the user which occurs in the document D, with an amount proportional to W_T, to Robertson'"'"'s term frequency TF_TD and to IDF_T where

W_T=log(P_T(R)/P_T()),

where

P_T(R)=a probability that the term T occurs in the document accessed by the user,

=N_TR/(Σ

_RN_tR), where

N_TR=a number of occurrences of the term T in the document accessed by the user

Σ

_RN_tR=a total number of occurrences of terms in the document accessed by the user

P_T()=a probability that the term T occurs in the Web site,

=N_T/(Σ

N_t), where

N_T=a number of occurrences of the term T in the Web site

Σ

N_t=a total number of occurrences of terms in the Web site,

TF_TD=N_TD/(N_TD+K₁+K₂*(L_D/L₀)), and

N_TD is the number of times the term T occurs in document D,

L_D is the length of document D,

L₀ is the average length of a document in the Web site,

K₁ and K₂ are constants, and

IDF_T=log((N+K₃)/N_T)/log(N+K₄), and

N is the number of documents in the Web site,

N_T is the number of documents containing the term T in the Web site, and

K₃ and K₄ are constants.

27. The device of claim 26, wherein K₁ is 0.5, K₂ is 1.5, K₃ is 0.5, and K₄ is 1.0.

28. The device of claim 16, wherein the documents chosen are selected from the collection of documents according to the scores achieved when evaluating documents in the collection according to a formula giving scores to documents depending upon an occurrence in the documents of index terms manually assigned to the document accessed by the user.

29. The device of claim 28, wherein the score given to a document, as a result of containing a term which occurs in the document accessed by the user, or an index term assigned to the document accessed, depends upon how often the term occurs in the document accessed by the user, compared to how often the term occurs in the documents in the Web site.

30. The device of claim 28, wherein the score given to a document, as a result of containing a term which occurs in the document accessed by the user, depends upon how often the term occurs in the document accessed by the user, compared to how often the term occurs in the documents in the Web site, and the score given to a document, as a result of containing an index term assigned to the document accessed, depends upon a weight assigned to the index term.