Customizable ordering of search results and predictive query generation

• US 7,921,109 B2
• Filed: 10/05/2005
• Issued: 04/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Parikh, Jignashu, Harish, Jaiprakash, Kapur, Shyam
• Primary Examiner(s): Le; Debbie
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran; Bao G
• Application Number:
  US11/244,261
• Publication Number:
  US 20070078828A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,008 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/4, 707/5, 707/1, 707/9, 707/731, 707/999.005, 707/999.007, 715255-272, 715/786, 715/811, 715/833, 846/00, 705/27
• US Class Current: 707/731
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

In a computerized search system, a document corpus is searched according to a query and results of the search are presentable as an ordered search result set comprising one or more search hits, a search hit being a document of the document corpus or reference thereto. Based on content of the search result set, a number of suggested queries and/or parameter options are presented to a querier, thereby allowing the querier to select a suggested query and/or provide values for the parameters and those selections can be used to reorder the hits of the search result set. The particular suggested queries and/or parameters presented depend on the page elements of the search result set'"'"'s documents and their categorization. The categorization might be done using concept networks.

Claims

1. A computerized search method for searching a document corpus according to a query and communicating results of the search as a search result set comprising one or more search hits, a search hit being a document of the document corpus or reference thereto, the method comprising:

receiving from a client system a query from a querier, the query comprising a search string relating to at least one concept;

performing a document corpus search to identify a suitable search result set for the query;

identifying, for at least some of the search hits, page elements of those documents, the page elements being different from the documents and the page elements being structured data and markup data, identifying page elements including identifying one or more categorizations of those identified page elements, the one or more categorizations corresponding to the at least one concept of the search string;

outputting the search result set to the client system in response to the query and based on the one or more categorizations of the page elements;

generating a plurality of subconcepts for the at least one concept;

dynamically generating a set of slider parameters from the contextual data of the query, the page elements and categorizations of those identified page elements, wherein the set of slider parameters comprises a slider parameter for each of the plurality of subconcepts, and wherein each slider parameter comprises a setting to vary search hit order according to a slider value provided by the querier;

sending the set of slider parameters and the search result set to the client system;

accepting, at the client system, the slider values for the set of sliders as submitted by the querier;

presenting, at the client system, the search result set in a first order and a set of sliders to adjust the slider values for each of the slider parameters of the set of slider parameters;

reordering, at the client system, the search result set into a second order according to the accepted slider values entered at the client system; and

presenting, at the client system, the search result set in the second order.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying page elements is done for a plurality of documents in the document corpus in advance of queries being generated.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the querier is one of a human or a computer.

4. A search system comprising:

a client system configured to receive a query from a querier and present search results to the querier in a results order; and

a search engine configured to receive the query from the client system, the query comprising a search string relating to at least one concept, perform a corpus search to identify documents relevant to the query, identify, for at least some of the search hits, page elements of those documents, the page elements being different from the documents and the page elements being structured data and markup data, identification of page elements including identification of one or more categorizations of those identified page elements, the one or more categorizations corresponding to the at least one concept of the search string, output the search results based on the one or more categorizations of the page elements, generate a plurality of subconcepts for the at least one concept, and the search engine configured to dynamically generate a set of slider parameters specific to the identified documents from the contextual data of the query, the page elements and categorizations of those identified page elements, wherein the set of slider parameters comprises a slider parameter for each of the plurality of subconcepts, and wherein each slider parameter comprises a setting to vary search hit order according to a slider value provided by the querier;

the client system configured to present the search results in a first order and a set of sliders to adjust the slider values for each of the slider parameters of the set of slider parameters, configured to accept the slider values for the set of sliders submitted by the querier, configured to reorder the search results into a second order according to the accepted slider values entered at the client system; and

configured to presenting the search results in the second order.