Methods and systems for dynamically rearranging search results into hierarchically organized concept clusters

• US 7,536,384 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2007
• Issued: 05/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veveo, Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Veveo, Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Rajanala, Pranav, Garg, Pankaj, Venkataraman, Sashikumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Rones; Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): Khoshnoodi; Fariborz
• Application Number:
  US11/855,661
• Publication Number:
  US 20080071771A1
• Time in Patent Office: 613 Days
• Field of Search: 707/5, 707/1, 707/100, 707/102, 712/204
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/358 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/638 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/738 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/78 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

Methods of and systems for dynamically rearranging search results into hierarchically organized concept clusters are provided. A method of searching for and presenting content items as an arrangement of conceptual clusters to facilitate further search and navigation on a display-constrained device includes providing a set of content items and receiving incremental input to incrementally identify search terms for content items. Content items are selected and grouped into sets based on how the incremental input matches various metadata associated with the content items. The selected content items are grouped into explicit conceptual clusters and user-implied conceptual clusters based on metadata in common to the selected content items. The clustered content items are presented according to the conceptual clusters into which they are grouped.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of searching for and presenting content items as an arrangement of conceptual clusters to facilitate further search and navigation on a display-constrained device, the method comprising:

a database stored in an electronically readable storage medium for cataloging provide a relatively large set of content items, at least some of the content items having metadata to specify explicit concepts associated with the content items, and at least some of the metadata including phrases having more than one metadata term;

receiving from a user incremental input to incrementally identify more than one search term for desired content items;

selecting from the relatively large set of content items;

a first set of content items, wherein all search terms match metadata terms of a single one of the metadata phrases of each content item of said first set;

a second set of content items, wherein a first subset of the search terms matches at least one metadata term of at least a first metadata phrase of each content item of said second set; and

a third set of content items, wherein a second subset of the search terms matches at least one metadata term of at least a second metadata phrase of each content item of said third set, the first metadata phrase differing from the second metadata phrase;

grouping the content items the second and third sets have in common to form an intersection set for user-implied concepts inferred from the explicit concepts associated with the metadata of the content items of the intersection set;

organizing the content items of the first set and the intersection set into conceptual cluster sets;

the content items of the first set being organized into explicit conceptual cluster sets based on the metadata phrases having metadata terms matching the search terms so that content items having a same metadata phrase matching the search terms are clustered together; and

the content items of the intersection set being organized into user-implied conceptual clusters based on at least the first and second metadata phrases the content items of the intersection set have in common so that content items having same first and second metadata phrases matching the search terms are clustered together; and

presenting on the display-constrained device the content items organized into the explicit conceptual cluster sets and the user-implied conceptual cluster sets;

each explicit conceptual cluster set identified based on the metadata phrase common to the content items of said explicit conceptual cluster set having metadata terms matching the search terms; and

each user-implied conceptual cluster set identified based on the first and second metadata phases the content items of said user-implied conceptual cluster set have in common.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the incremental input is ambiguous text input, the ambiguous text input having one or more digits, each digit representing more than one alphanumeric character.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising modifying the metadata terms of at least one of the metadata phrases of at least some of the content items based on at least one of the date, day, and time of the incremental input.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the presenting the content items is on the display-constrained device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the incremental input comprises at least two prefixes in an ordered format.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the incremental input comprises at least two prefixes in an unordered format.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the incremental input comprises at least two prefixes separated by a word separator.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the organized content items are ordered for presentation in accordance with a given relevance function, the relevance function comprising at least one of temporal relevance of the content items, location relevance of the content items, popularity of the content items, and preferences of the user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the metadata terms include phonetically equivalent terms to the explicit concepts associated with at least some of the content items.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the metadata terms include commonly misspelled terms of the terms of the metadata phrases.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising organizing the content items of the large set of content items into a predetermined hierarchy based on a relationship between the informational content of the content items, wherein the metadata to specify the explicit concepts associated with the content items is selected based on the predetermined hierarchy.

12. A system for searching for and presenting content items as an arrangement of conceptual clusters to facilitate further search and navigation on a display- constrained device, the system comprising:

a database stored in an electronically readable storage, medium for cataloging a relatively large set of content items, at least some of the content items having metadata to specify explicit concepts associated with the content items, and at least some of the metadata including phrases having more than one metadata term;

an electronically readable medium containing instructions for causing a computer system to;

input logic for receive from a user incremental input to incrementally identify more than one search term for desired content items;

select from the relatively large set of content items;

a first set of content items, wherein all search terms match metadata terms of a single one of the metadata phrases of each content item of said first set;

a second set of content items, wherein a first subset of the search terms matches at least one metadata term of at least a first metadata phrase of each content item of said second set; and

a third set of content items, wherein a second subset of the search terms matches at least one metadata term of at least a second metadata phrase of each content item of said third set, the first metadata phrase differing from the second metadata phrase;

for group the content items the second and third sets have in common to form an intersection set for user-implied concepts inferred from the explicit concepts associated with the metadata of the content items of the intersection set;

organize the content items of the first set and the intersection set into conceptual cluster sets;

the content items of the first set being organized into explicit conceptual cluster sets based on the metadata phrases having metadata terms matching the search terms so that content items having a same metadata phrase matching the search terms are clustered together; and

the content items of the intersection set being organized into user-implied conceptual clusters based on at least the first and second metadata phrases the content items of the intersection set have in common so that content items having same first and second metadata phrases matching the search terms are clustered together; and

present on the display-constrained device the content items organized into the explicit conceptual cluster sets and the user-implied conceptual cluster sets;

each explicit conceptual cluster set identified based on the metadata phrase common to the content items of said explicit conceptual cluster set having metadata terms matching the search terms; and

each user-implied conceptual cluster set identified based on the first and second metadata phases the content items of said user-implied conceptual cluster set have in common.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein at least a portion of the database stored in an electronically readable medium is implemented in a server system remote from the user.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the electronically readable medium contains instructions for causing at least one of the receiving incremental input from a user, the selecting, the grouping, the organizing, and the presenting to be performed by the input logic, the selection logic, the grouping logic, the organization logic, and the presentation logic is implemented in a server system remote from the user.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the incremental input is ambiguous text input, the ambiguous text input having one or more digits, each digit representing more than one alphanumeric character.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the electronically readable medium contains instructions for causing a computer to comprise, modification logic for modify the metadata terms of at least one of the metadata phrases of at least some of the content items based on at least one of the date, day, and time of the incremental input.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the electronically readable medium contains instructions for causing a computer to order the organized content items for presentation in accordance with a given relevance function, wherein the relevance function comprises at least one of temporal relevance of the content items, location relevance of the content items, popularity of the content items, and preferences of the user.