Mixed initiative semantic search

• US 7,987,176 B2
• Filed: 06/25/2007
• Issued: 07/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Soltani, Anoshirwan, Latzina, Markus
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam; Shahid A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jami; Hares
• Application Number:
  US11/821,703
• Publication Number:
  US 20080319947A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,492 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707705-788, 707/999.3, 704/9
• US Class Current: 707/713
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/334 Query execution G06F16/335 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method is illustrated including receiving a search query, parsing the search query to identify first and second search terms, determining a relationship between the first and second search terms based on their respective domain assignments, conducting a search based on the respective domain assignments, and displaying a result of the search based on the respective domain assignments, and the relationship between the first and second search terms, as at least one rephrasing of the search query.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a search query;

parsing the search query to identify first and second search terms;

assigning the first search term and the second search term to respective domains, each domain being a semantic category comprising a set of entities of similar type;

determining a relationship between the first and second search terms based on their respective domain assignments;

conducting a search based on the respective domain assignments;

displaying a result of the search based on the respective domain assignments, the result of the search being displayed as a plurality of rephrasings of the search query, the plurality of rephrasings of the search query comprising alternative semantic queries, respective alternative semantic queries comprising the first term, the second term, and a semantic phrase indicating the relationship between the first and second search terms, the alternative semantic queries comprising different semantic phrases;

receiving user input indicative of selection of a selected one of the plurality of rephrasings of the search query; and

conducting a further search based on the selected rephrasing of the search query.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning the relationship between the first and second search terms to a data store as an inter-domain relationship.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning the relationship between the first and second search terms to a data store as an intra-domain relationship.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second search terms are assigned to the same domain.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second search terms are assigned to different domains.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the relationship between the first and second search terms based on their respective domain assignments is at least one of a default relationship, a manually assigned relationship, or a probability-based relationship.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one rephrasing of the search query comprises a Natural Language (NL) statement.

8. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions, which when implemented by one or more machines cause the one or more machines to perform the following operations:

receiving a search query;

parsing the search query to identify two or more search terms;

assigning the first search term and the second search term to respective domains, each domain being a semantic category comprising a set of entities of similar type;

determining a relationship between the two or more search terms based on their respective domain assignments;

conducting a search based on the respective domain assignments; and

displaying a result of the search based on the respective domain assignments, the result of the search being displayed as a plurality of rephrasings of the search query, the plurality of rephrasings of the search query comprising alternative semantic queries, respective alternative semantic queries comprising the first term, the second term, and a semantic phrase indicating the relationship between the first and second search terms, the alternative semantic queries comprising different semantic phrases;

receiving user input indicative of selection of a selected one of the plurality of rephrasings of the search query; and

conducting a further search based on the selected rephrasing of the search query.

9. A computer system comprising:

a parser to parse a search query to identify first and second search terms;

a relation engine to assign the first and second terms to respective domains, each domain being a semantic category comprising a set of entities of similar type, the relation engine further to determine a relationship between the first and second search terms based on respective domain assignments of the first and second search terms;

a query engine to conduct a search based on the respective domain assignments, the query engine to generate a plurality of rephrasings of the search query, the plurality of rephrasings of the search query comprising alternative semantic queries, respective alternative semantic queries comprising the first term, the second term, and a semantic phrase indicating the relationship between the first and second search terms, the alternative semantic queries comprising different semantic phrases; and

a display to display a result of the search based on the respective domain assignments, the result of the search to be displayed as the plurality of rephrasings of the search query,

wherein the query engine is to conduct a further search in response to receiving user input indicative of selection of one of the plurality of rephrasings of the search query.

10. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the relation engine is to assign the relationship between the first and second search terms to a data store as an inter-domain relationship.

11. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the relation engine is to assign the relationship between the first and second search terms to a data store as an intra-domain relationship.

12. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the relation engine is to assign the first and second search terms to the same domain.

13. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the relation engine is to assign the first and second search terms to different domains.

14. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the relation engine is to determine the relationship between the first and second search terms based on their respective domain assignments as at least one of a default relationship, a manually assigned relationship, or a probability-based relationship.

15. The computer system of claim 9, wherein at least one rephrasing of the search query comprises a Natural Language (NL) statement.