Search ranking method for file system and related search engine

• US 7,644,069 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2007
• Issued: 01/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Zhang, Li, Su, Zhong, Chen, Wei Zhu
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo; Tim T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Fan; Shiow-Jy
• Application Number:
  US11/679,379
• Publication Number:
  US 20070276807A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,043 Days
• Field of Search: 707 2- 5, 707/E17.01, 707/E17.108, 707/E17.14
• US Class Current: 707/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/148 File search processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/156 Query results presentation

Abstract

The present invention provides a search ranking method suitable for a file system, including receiving a query, calculating final relevance scores of individual file items with respect to the query at least partially in accordance with energy scores of individual nodes on a current file system energy tree, and outputting a list of search results based on the final relevance scores. The file system energy tree is updated in response to an operation on the file system performed by a user, wherein the file system energy tree has a tree structure corresponding to that of the file system, and the individual nodes thereof respectively corresponds to the individual file items in the file system

Claims

1. A computer-implemented search ranking method suitable for a file system, comprising:

receiving a query via a computer;

calculating final relevance scores of individual file items via said computer with respect to said query at least partially in accordance with energy scores of individual nodes on a current file system energy tree, and outputting a list of search results based on said final relevance scores; and

updating said energy scores of said individual nodes on said file system energy tree via said computer in response to an operation on said file system performed by a user,

wherein said file system energy tree has a tree structure corresponding to that of said file system, and said individual nodes thereof respectively correspond to the individual file items in said file system.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein in response to a click on a file item performed by a user, the energy score of a node corresponding to said file item on said file system energy tree is increased;

and

the increased energy score of said node is at least partially transferred to other related nodes along paths on said file system energy tree.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the increased energy score of said node is at least partially transferred to nodes within a predetermined transfer depth and satisfies:

E′

(n)=E(n)+p^dist(n,d)

wherein, d represents the node corresponding to said clicked file item;

n represents any node within said predetermined transfer depth;

E(n) represents the original energy score of the node n;

E′

(n) represents the updated energy score of the node n;

p is the energy transfer rate with a value ranging from 0 to 1; and

dist(n, d) represents a distance from the node n to the node d along a tree path(s) on the structure of said file system energy tree, wherein dist(n, d) is smaller than or equal to the predetermined transfer depth.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein in response to an operation performed by a user that creates a file item, a corresponding node is created on said file system energy tree, and said created node is assigned to have an energy score equal to that of its father node.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein in response to an operation performed by a user that deletes a file item, a corresponding node is deleted from said file system energy tree.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein in response to an operation performed by a user that moves a file item from a first position to a second position, a corresponding node is deleted from the first position of said file system energy tree, a corresponding node is created in the second position of said file system energy tree, and the created node is assigned to have an energy score equal to that of its current father node.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein said file system energy tree is initialized such that the individual nodes have equal energy scores.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein said file item includes file and file folder.

9. A computer-implemented file system search engine, comprising a file search module, a file index, and a search results ranking module, the file system search engine that searches for a file item in accordance with a received query and outputting a list of search results, the file system search engines further comprising:

a file system energy tree index that records a file system energy tree via a computer having a tree structure corresponding to that of said file system and energy scores of individual nodes thereof, said individual nodes respectively corresponding to the individual file items in said file system; and

an energy tree updating module that updates said energy scores of said individual nodes on said file system energy tree by said computer recorded in said file system energy tree index in response to an operation on said file system performed by a user,

wherein said search results ranking module calculates final relevance scores of individual file items with respect to the query at least partially in accordance with the respective energy scores of the individual nodes recorded in said current file system energy tree index so as to rank the file items in said list of search results in accordance with said final relevance scores.

10. The file system search engine according to claim 9, wherein, in response to a click on a file item performed by a user, said energy tree updating module increases the energy score of a node corresponding to said file item recorded in said file system energy tree index, and at least partially transfers the increased energy score of said node to other related nodes along paths on said file system energy tree.

11. The file system search engine according to claim 10, wherein said energy tree updating module calculates the energy scores of nodes which need to be updated in said file system energy tree index with the following expression:

E′

(n)=E(n)+p^dist(n,d)

wherein, d represents the node corresponding to said clicked file item;

n represents any node within a predetermined transfer depth;

E(n) represents the original energy score of the node n;

E′

(n) represents the updated energy score of the node n;

p is the energy transfer rate with a value ranging from 0 to 1; and

dist(n, d) represents a distance from the node n to the node d along a tree path(s) on the structure of said file system energy tree, wherein dist(n, d) is smaller than or equal to the predetermined transfer depth.

12. The file system search engine according to claim 9, wherein in response to an operation performed by a user that creates a file item, said energy tree updating module creates a node corresponding to said created file item in said file system energy tree index, and assigns said created node to an energy score equal to that of its father node.

13. The file system search engine according to claim 9, wherein in response to an operation performed by a user that deletes a file item, said energy tree updating module deletes a node corresponding to said deleted file item from said file system energy tree index.

14. The file system search engine according to claim 9, wherein in response to an operation performed by a user that moves a file item from a first position to a second position, said energy tree updating module deletes a node corresponding to said moved file item from the first position of said file system energy tree recorded in said file system energy tree index, creates a node corresponding to said moved file item in the second position of said file system energy tree recorded in said file system energy tree index, and assigns the created node to an energy score equal to that of its current father node.

15. The file system search module according to claim 9, further comprising:

a history recording module that obtains clicks on file item(s) performed by a user and providing corresponding information to said energy tree updating module.

16. The file system search engine according to claim 9, further comprising:

a file system monitoring module that monitors operations performed by a user that creates, deletes and moves file item(s) on the file system, and providing corresponding information to said energy tree updating module.

17. The file system search module according to claim 9, wherein during initializing said file system search engine, the individual nodes recorded in said file system energy tree index have equal energy scores.

18. The file system search engine according to claim 9, wherein said file item includes file and file folder.

19. A computer storage medium readable by a computer tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by said computer for performing a method for search ranking suitable for a file system, said method comprising:

receiving a query;

calculating final relevance scores of individual file items with respect to said query at least partially in accordance with energy scores of individual nodes on a current file system energy tree, and outputting a list of search results based on said final relevance scores; and

updating said energy scores of said individual nodes on said file system energy tree in response to an operation on said file system performed by a user,

wherein said file system energy tree has a tree structure corresponding to that of said file system, and said individual nodes thereof respectively correspond to the individual file items in said file system.