Consumer-focused results ordering

• US 7,693,901 B2
• Filed: 08/10/2005
• Issued: 04/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wong, Kong-Kat, Cuncannan, Helen Jean, Ka, Chong I., Gordon, Michael P., Prakash, Shailesh, Bergstraesser, Thomas F., Steele, Mackenzie
• Primary Examiner(s): Breene; John E
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bullock; Joshua
• Application Number:
  US11/200,615
• Publication Number:
  US 20070038620A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,700 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/5
• US Class Current: 707/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

A vertical search engine may rank items based on both the quality of data associated with each item and the popularity of each item. The vertical search engine may access data associated with items from a variety of different sources, including feed sources and crawl sources. Data quality inputs are determined for each item based on the quality of the data associated with each respective item. In addition, popularity inputs are determined for each item based on user interest in each respective item. A global rankings score is then calculated for each item based on the data quality inputs and popularity inputs for each respective item. The global ranking score may be used to order search results for search queries in such a way that items from feed data and items from crawl data may be displayed in a unified manner, rather than being segregated by data source.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media storing computer-useable instructions that, when used by a search engine, cause the search engine to perform a computerized method to rank a plurality of items, the method comprising:

accessing data associated with a plurality of individual search result items from a plurality of data sources, the plurality of data sources including at least one feed source and at least one crawl source, wherein the at least one feed source comprises a third-party source of information external to the search engine that feeds data to the search engine, and wherein the at least one crawl source comprises a third-party source of information external to the search engine that is crawled by the search engine to access data;

determining at least one popularity input for each of the plurality of individual search result items, wherein the at least one popularity input for a given individual search result item is indicative of a user popularity of that given individual search result item;

determining at least one data quality input for each of the plurality of individual search result items, wherein the at least one data quality input for a given individual search result item is indicative of at least one of a completeness, accuracy, and reliability of data available for the given individual search result item; and

calculating a global ranking score for each of the plurality of individual search result items based on the at least one popularity input and the at least one data quality input for each of the plurality of individual search result items, wherein the global ranking scores allow the plurality of individual search result items to be ranked against each other and commingled together in a common list as search results in response to a search query submitted to the search engine.

2. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein accessing data associated with a plurality of individual search result items comprises:

accessing at least one data feed from at least one feed source, the at least one data feed containing data associated with at least one individual search result item; and

crawling at least one crawl source to access data associated with at least one individual search result item.

3. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 2, further comprising:

storing the data from the at least one feed source and the data from the at least one crawl source in a database.

4. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 3, wherein accessing data associated with a plurality of items further comprises:

accessing the data stored in the database.

5. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein determining at least one popularity input for each of the plurality of individual search result items comprises:

gathering popularity information for each of the plurality of individual search result items; and

determining the at least one popularity input based on the popularity information gathered for each of the plurality of individual search result items.

6. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 5, wherein the popularity information for each of the plurality of items comprises at least one of user clicks on an item, ratings of an item, reviews of an item, and rated helpfulness of reviews of an item.

7. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein in the at least one popularity input comprises at least one of a click score, a trend score, and a ratings and reviews score.

8. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the at least one data quality input for at least one individual search result item comprises at least one of the following:

an image score based on at least a presence or absence of an image for the at least one individual search result item, a naughty bit score based on whether the at least one individual search result item is categorized as an adult product, a matching score based on a number of different data sources providing data matching the at least one individual search result item, an attributes score based on a number and quality of attributes available for the at least one individual search result item, a classification score based on how far a category in which the at least one individual search result item is classified is from a bottom of a classification taxonomy, a data processing score based on a confidence in data processing performed for the at least one search result item, a data source score based on a confidence in the data source for the at least one individual search result item, and a merchant reputation score based on a confidence in the data source for the at least one individual search result item.

9. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein calculating a global ranking score for each of the plurality of individual search result items comprises applying a weighting to each of the at least one popularity input and at least one data quality input for each of the plurality of individual search result items.

10. One or more computer-storage media embodying computer useable instructions for causing a search engine to perform a method for providing search results based on a search query from a client device, the method comprising:

receiving the search query from the client device;

determining a subset of a plurality of items based on the search query, wherein the subset of the plurality of items includes at least one item from at least one feed source and at least one item from at least one crawl source, wherein the at least one feed source comprises a third-party source of information external to the search engine that feeds data to the search engine and the at least one crawl source comprises a third-party source of information external to the search engine that is crawled by the search engine to access data, and wherein each of the plurality of items includes a global ranking score that is based on at least one popularity input indicative of user interest in the item and at least one data quality input indicative of a quality of data available for the item, wherein the at least one data quality input includes at least an attributes score calculated at least in part on a number of predetermined attributes available for the item; and

providing the subset of the plurality of items to the client device, the items within the subset being ordered within a common list based at least in part on the global ranking score associated with each item of the subset such that the at least one item from the at least one feed source and the at least one item from the at least one crawl source are ranked against one another and commingled in the common list provided to the client device.

11. The one or more computer-storage media of claim 10, wherein determining a subset of a plurality of items based on the search query comprises accessing a database containing data associated with each of the plurality of items and determining the subset based on the search query and the data associated with each of the plurality of items.

16. The one or more computer-storage media of claim 10, wherein the at least one popularity input for an item comprises a click score based on the number of clicks the item has received, a trend score based on a trend in clicks the item is receiving, and a ratings and reviews score based on user ratings and reviews of the item.

17. The one or more computer-storage media of claim 10, wherein the at least one data quality input for an item comprises an image score based on at least a presence or absence of an image for the item, a naughty bit score based on whether the item is categorized as an adult product, a matching score based on a number of different data sources providing data matching the item, a classification score based on the classification for the item, a data processing score based on a confidence in data processing performed for the item, a data source score based on a confidence in the data source for the item, and a merchant reputation score based on a reputation of a merchant providing the item.

12. A search engine device for ranking items, the search engine device having a processor and comprising:

a data accessing component for accessing data associated with a plurality of individual items from a plurality of sources, the plurality of sources including at least one feed source and at least one crawl source;

a ranking component for calculating a global ranking score for each of the plurality of individual items, wherein the global ranking score is calculated based on at least one data quality input and at least one popularity input for each of the plurality of individual items, wherein the at least one data quality input for each individual item is indicative of a quality of data available for each individual item and the at least one popularity input is indicative of user interest in each individual item; and

a search query component for receiving a search query from a client device and providing search results to the client device based on the search query, wherein the search results comprise a subset of the plurality of individual items including at least one individual item based on data from the at least one feed source and at least one individual item based on data from the at least one crawl source, and wherein the plurality of individual items are ordered against one another and commingled in a common list based at least in part on the global ranking score of each individual item within the subset.

13. The search engine device of claim 12, wherein the data accessing component comprises:

a data feed component for accessing at least one data feed from at least one feed source external to the search engine device; and

a crawl component for accessing data by crawling at least one crawl source external to the search engine device.

14. The search engine device of claim 12, wherein the ranking component comprises at least one of:

a data quality determining component for determining the at least one data quality input for each of the plurality of individual items; and

a popularity determining component for gathering popularity data and determining the at least one popularity input for each of the plurality of individual items.

15. The search engine device of claim 14, further comprising:

a database for storing item data and popularity data for each of the plurality of individual items.