Search engine facility with automated knowledge retrieval, generation and maintenance

• US 7,216,121 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2002
• Issued: 05/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: McDavid, Douglas Warren, Mazina, Dorothy Irene, Hoffman, Richard Dale, Bachman, Robert Edward, Johnson, Verlyn Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): WOO, ISAAC M
• Application Number:
  US10/334,255
• Publication Number:
  US 20040139106A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,589 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/7, 707/10, 707/104.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9532 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A system for generating and retrieving relevant electronic information required by a user initiating an electronic search on the system. The system comprise a user-interactive search engine and a knowledge database, which stores knowledge information that is formatted. Additionally, the system includes a plurality of functional software modules that enables a user to complete an interactive search and find a solution to a task based on entered context information and keywords. A list of keywords are displayed to the user and the user selects those keywords that are relevant to the solution desired. The search engine looks for the articles containing the identified keywords. If no article is found with the search terms, the search is expanded to the Internet. The user may then modify the information returned from the Internet, format the information and save the information as a new recipe.

Claims

1. A method for providing structured search results via an electronic search facility, said method comprising:

receiving a search query from a user including a context within which said search query is to be searched;

identifying key terms within said context by parsing said context;

identifying keywords linked to specific articles that are associated with said key terms;

returning said specific articles to said user as a result set generated by said search query;

providing said result set in a structured format designed to provide said user with more relevant information retrieved from said search query based on said context;

first searching a local database for a match of said search query within said context;

outputting a result set of an initial search on said local database when said initial search generated more than a threshold number of results;

when said local database does not contain at least said threshold number of results within the result set generated from said search query within said context, completing said search query on a non-local database accessible via a network to which an associated data processing system has access, wherein said step of completing said search query on said non-local database is automatically initiated when said result set does not include at least said threshold number of results; and

subsequently outputting a next result set including results from said local database and results from said non-local database.

2. A data processing system comprising:

a processor coupled to a read only memory;

a permanent storage device associated with said processor and on which is stored a knowledge database;

connection means for linking said data processing system to an external electronic storage facility with a next searchable database;

program modules executed by said processor that provide a search engine that completes a user-entered search utilizing both contextual searching and weighted keyword searching so that specific search results are generated, wherein said program modules comprise code for;

first searching a local database for a match of said query within said context;

outputting a result set of said initial search on said local database when said initial search generated more than a threshold number of results;

when said local database does not contain sufficient results of said query within said context, completing said search on a non-local database accessible via a network to which an associated data processing system has access, wherein said step of completing said search on said non-local database is automatically initiated when said result set does not include at least said threshold number of results; and

subsequently outputting a next result set including results from said local database and results from said non-local database.

3. The data processing system of claim 2, further comprising:

a first graphical user interface (GUI) that enables entry of a user search request with context information;

a second GUI that displays a list of weighted keywords generated from the context information and which enables user selection of specific ones of said weighted keywords and values to assign to said specific weighted keywords, wherein a search is conducted utilizing said weighted keywords and a result set of said search is outputted in order of weight assigned to said weighted keywords.

4. The data processing system of claim 3, further comprising:

connection means for connecting to an external database of searchable information; and

a program module that, responsive to a search not yielding a result set with at least said threshold number of results within the result set generated from a local database, seamlessly expands said search to said external database.

5. The data processing system of claim 2, said program modules further comprising code for:

updating a result set generated by said search engine based on identified keywords and weight values selected by users to associate to said identified keywords; and

identifying keys that are not matched to a keyword within said database for later analysis by a system administrator to provide an update to said database that includes a keyword associated with each of said keys.