System and method for generating attribute-based selectable search extension

• US 7,526,476 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2005
• Issued: 04/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Naam, Ramez, Weare, Christopher B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wassum; Luke S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Richardson; James E
• Application Number:
  US11/078,590
• Publication Number:
  US 20060206475A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,506 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90324 using system suggestions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

A system and related techniques generate alternative search terms derived from a set of search results. A user may input a set of search terms such as keywords or other inputs, and receive a set of search results back. In addition, the set of search results may have a set of selectable alternative search links associated thereto. The association of each selectable alternative search link and the set of search results depends on the evaluated distinctiveness of alternative information content of a search result Web page against other search results. In embodiments an attribute or attribute of a result may be assessed for inclusion as an alternative search attributes based on the attribute'"'"'s deviation from an average of the attributes of the set of search results. A user may select the alternative search suggestion and be presented with an updated set of search results related to the alternative search attributes.

Claims

1. A computing system capable of generating attribute-based selectable search extensions, the computing system comprising a processor coupled to a computer storage medium, the computer storage medium having stored thereon a plurality of computer software components executable by the processor, the computer software components comprising:

an input interface component to receive a set of search terms;

a search extension logic configured for performing a method comprising;

communicating with the input interface component to receive the set of search terms;

accessing a set of initial search results based on the set of search terms; and

identifying at least one attribute of at least one result in the set of initial search results, wherein the at least one attribute identifies a formatting of the at least one result; and

generating a set of attribute-based selectable search extensions associated with the set of initial search results that reflect outlying attributes within the set of initial search results, wherein generating comprises;

(1) assigning the at least one attribute a point in attribute space, wherein the attribute space is defined by axes that are each associated with a respective attribute identified within the set of initial search results, and wherein at least one of the axes represents the formatting;

(2) comparing the point associated with the at least one attribute of the at least one result in the set of initial results against an average of points, each associated with attributes identified within other results in the set of initial search results, along an axis of the axes within the attribute space to determine a distance from the average of points;

(3) comparing the distance against a threshold; and

(4) identifying the at least one attribute as one of the outlying attributes based on the comparison.

2. The computing system according to claim 1, wherein the set of search terms are received via at least one of a networked search service and desktop search on local storage.

3. The computing system according to claim 1, wherein the set of attribute-based selectable search extensions comprises at least one selectable link associated with the at least one result in the set of initial search results.

4. The computing system according to claim 1, wherein the set of attribute-based selectable search extensions comprises search extensions based on attributes of at least one of file type, presence of image data, match in result title, quality of match, freshness of match, presence of address data and presence of contact data.

5. The computing system according to claim 1, wherein selection of at least one of the set of attribute-based selectable search extensions initiates further search processing to generate search results conditioned on the identified format characteristic of the at least one identified attribute.

6. The computing system according to claim 5, wherein the further search processing generates search results conditioned on two or more identified attributes.

18. The computing system according to claim 3, wherein the set of attribute-based selectable search extensions are presented to a user as the at least one selectable link labeled with a message of the identified format characteristic.

20. The computing system according to claim 18, wherein the method performed by the search extension logic further comprises:

receiving a click-through at the at least one selectable link;

refining the received set of search terms with the identified format characteristic;

reissuing a search with the refined set of search terms to receive a further set of search results; and

transmitting to the user the further set of search results along with an updated set of attribute-based selectable search extensions derived from the further set of search results.

7. A method for generating attribute-based selectable search extensions, wherein a processor is provided to carry out the method comprising:

receiving a set of search terms;

accessing a set of initial search results based on the set of search terms;

identifying at least one attribute of at least one result in the set of initial search results, wherein the at least one attribute identifies a type of file associated with the at least one result; and

generating a set of attribute-based selectable search extensions associated with the set of initial search results that reflect outlying attributes within the set of initial search results, wherein generating comprises;

(1) assigning the at least one attribute a point in attribute space, wherein the attribute space is defined by axes that are each associated with a respective attribute identified within the set of initial search results, and wherein at least one of the axes represents the type of file;

(2) comparing the point associated with the at least one attribute of the at least one result in the set of initial results against an average of points, each associated with attributes identified within other results in the set of initial search results, along an axis of the axes within the attribute space to determine a distance from the average of points;

(3) comparing the distance against a threshold; and

(4) identifying the at least one attribute as one of the outlying attributes based on the comparison.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the set of search terms are received via at least one of a networked search service and desktop search on local storage.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the set of attribute-based selectable search extensions comprises at least one selectable link associated with the at least one result in the set of initial search results.

10. The method according to claim 7, wherein the set of attribute-based selectable search extensions comprises search extensions based on attributes of at least one of file type, presence of image data, match in result title, quality of match, freshness of match, presence of address data and presence of contact data.

11. The method according to claim 7, further comprising initiating further search processing to generate search results conditioned on the identified format characteristic of the at least one identified attribute based on a selection of at least one of the set of attribute-based selectable search extensions.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the further search processing generates search results conditioned on two or more identified attributes.

19. The method according to claim 9, wherein the set of attribute-based selectable search extensions are presented to a user as the at least one selectable link labeled with a message of the identified format characteristic.

13. A computerized method for generating a set of attribute-based selectable search extensions, the computerized method comprising:

communicating with an input interface component to receive a set of search terms;

accessing a set of initial search results based on the set of search terms;

identifying at least one attribute of a web page in the set of initial search results based on content within the web page, wherein the at least one attribute identifies metadata underlying the web page;

generating a set of attribute-based selectable search extensions associated with the set of initial search results that reflect outlying attributes within the set of initial search results, wherein generating comprises;

(1) assigning the at least one attribute a point in attribute space, wherein the attribute space is defined by axes that are each associated with a respective attribute identified within the set of initial search results, and wherein at least one of the axes represents the formatting of the web page;

(2) comparing the point associated with the at least one attribute of the web page in the set of initial results against an average of points, each associated with attributes identified within other results in the set of initial search results, along an axis of the axes within the attribute space to determine a distance from the average of points; and

(3) comparing the distance against a threshold;

determining whether the at least one attribute is distinctive based on the comparison; and

when the at least one attribute is distinctive, generating an attribute-based selectable search extension therefrom.

14. The computerized method according to claim 13, further comprising transmitting the attribute-based selectable search extension to a user-interface component for presentation to a user.

15. The computerized method according to claim 13, wherein generating a set of attribute-based selectable search extensions associated with the set of initial search results further comprises:

comparing the at least one attribute of the web page against one or more attributes associated with other web pages in the set of initial search results;

assigning the web page a point in attribute space, wherein the location of the point characterizes the nature of the at least one attribute within the web page, wherein the attribute space is defined by axes that are each associated with a respective attribute identified within the set of initial search results, and wherein at least one of the axes represents the underlying metadata;

determining a deviance of the point against an average of points, assigned to the other web pages in accordance with the one or more attributes associated with the other web pages, along an axis of the axes within the attribute space; and

comparing the deviance against a threshold to determine whether to select the at least one attribute within the web page for inclusion in the set of attribute-based selectable search extensions.

16. The computerized method according to claim 15, wherein a number of dimensions provided in the attribute space corresponds to the number of attributes identified.

17. The computerized method according to claim 15, wherein determining whether the at least one attribute is distinctive based on the comparison further comprises calculating comparative metrics for the at least one attribute and evaluating whether the comparative metrics exceed a threshold, the threshold based on an aggregation of similar attributes identified from the other web pages.