Identifying inadequate search content

• US 8,037,063 B2
• Filed: 02/03/2010
• Issued: 10/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Rosencrantz, Matt, Oldham, Jeffrey D., Varian, Hal R., Cutts, Matthew D.
• Primary Examiner(s): ALAM, SHAHID AL
• Application Number:
  US12/699,418
• Publication Number:
  US 20100138421A1
• Time in Patent Office: 615 Days
• Field of Search: 707/723, 707/728, 707/770, 707/727, 707/731, 707/748, 707/749, 707/752, 707/754, 709/203
• US Class Current: 707/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Systems and methods for identifying inadequate search content are provided. Inadequate search content, for example, can be identified based on statistics associated with the search queries related to the content.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

obtaining, by a processing device, a query search volume value for each of a plurality of search queries, the query search volume value for each search query being proportional to a number of times that the search query has been received;

grouping, by a processing device, the search queries that have been identified as relevant to a particular topic into a group of queries;

identifying a topic corpus for the group of queries, the topic corpus being documents that were identified as responsive to the search queries in the group of queries;

determining, by a processing device, that the particular topic is an underserved topic based on a relative topic corpus quality measure for the topic corpus being less than a threshold value, the relative topic corpus quality measure being a measure of relevance of the documents in the topic corpus relative to the query search volume value for the group of queries,

receiving, by a data processing device, a search query corresponding to the underserved topic; and

providing, by a data processing device and in response to receiving the search query, data that causes presentation of a notification that the search query corresponds to an underserved topic.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the particular topic is an underserved topic comprises:

obtaining a measure of relevance of the topic corpus to the particular topic;

computing the topic corpus quality measure based on the measure of relevance for the particular topic;

obtaining a topic search volume value for the particular topic, the topic search volume value for the particular topic being computed based on the query search volume value for each of the queries in the group of queries that correspond to the particular topic;

obtaining topic corpus quality measures for other topics, the other topics being topics that each have a topic search volume value that is within a threshold value of the topic search volume value for the particular topic; and

determining that the topic corpus quality measure for the particular topic is lower than a threshold quality, the threshold quality being computed based on the topic corpus quality measures for the other topics.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the particular topic is an underserved topic comprises:

obtaining a measure of relevance of the topic corpus to the particular topic;

computing the topic corpus quality measure based on the measure of relevance for the particular topic;

obtaining a topic search volume value for the particular topic, the topic search volume value for the particular topic being computed based on the query search volume value for each of the queries in the group of queries that correspond to the particular topic;

obtaining topic search volume values for other topics, the other topics being topics that each have a topic corpus quality measure that is within a threshold value of the topic corpus quality measure for the particular topic; and

determining that the topic search volume value for the particular topic is higher than a threshold volume, the threshold volume being computed based on the topic search volume values for the other topics.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a search query comprises receiving a search query requesting presentation of underserved topics that are identified as relevant to the search query.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein providing data that causes presentation of a notification comprises providing data that causes presentation of a plurality of underserved topics that are identified as relevant to the search query.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a search query comprises receiving a search query requesting search results that identify documents relevant to the search query.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein providing data that causes presentation of a notification comprises providing data that causes presentation of references to the documents, the data further causing presentation of an underserved topic to which the documents are relevant and notification that the underserved topic is underserved.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein providing data that causes presentation of a notification comprises providing data that causes presentation of references to the documents, the data further causing presentation of a notification that the documents referenced are relevant to an underserved topic.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing data that causes presentation of a request for additional content that is relevant to the underserved topic.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an additional document that is relevant to the underserved topic; and

providing compensation in response to receiving the additional document.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein providing compensation comprises providing compensation having a value computed based on a demand for the underserved topic and the topic corpus quality of the underserved topic.

12. A system, comprising:

at least one processor; and

a storage device in data communication with the at least one processor and storing;

a statistics collection engine that upon execution by a processor obtains a search query volume value for each of a plurality of search queries the query search volume value being proportional to a number of times that the search query has been received;

a statistics analysis engine that upon execution by a processor;

groups the search queries that have been identified as relevant to a particular topic into a group of queries; and

identifies a topic corpus for the group of queries, the topic corpus being documents that were identified as responsive to the search queries in the group of queries;

a comparator that upon execution by a processor determines that the particular topic is an underserved topic based on a relative topic corpus quality measure for the topic corpus being less than a threshold value, the relative topic corpus quality measure being a measure of relevance of the documents in the topic corpus relative to the query search volume value for the group of queries; and

a topic distribution engine that upon execution and in response to receiving the search query corresponding to an underserved topic provides data that causes presentation of a notification that the search query corresponds to an underserved topic.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the upon execution by a processor the comparator:

obtains a measure of relevance of the topic corpus to the particular topic;

computes the topic corpus quality measure based on the measure of relevance for the particular topic;

obtains a topic search volume value for the particular topic, the topic search volume value for the particular topic being computed based on the query search volume value for each of the queries in the group of queries that correspond to the particular topic;

obtains topic corpus quality measures for other topics, the other topics being topics that each have a topic search volume value that is within a threshold value of the topic search volume value for the particular topic;

determines that the topic corpus quality measure for the particular topic is lower than a threshold quality, the threshold quality being computed based on the topic corpus quality measures for the other topics; and

identifies the particular topic as an underserved topic.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein a search query corresponding to the underserved topic comprises a search query requesting presentation of underserved topics that are identified as relevant to the search query.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein upon execution by a processor the topic distribution engine provides data that causes presentation of a plurality of underserved topics that are identified as relevant to the search query.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein a search query corresponding to the underserved topic comprises a search query requesting search results that identify relevant to the search query.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein upon execution by a processor the topic distribution engine provides data that causes presentation of references to the documents, the data further causing presentation of an underserved topic to which the documents are relevant and notification that the underserved topic is underserved.

18. The system of claim 12, further comprising a user contribution environment configured to receive additional content that is relevant to the underserved topic.

19. A memory device encoded with a computer program comprising instructions that when executed operate to cause a computer to perform operations:

obtaining a query search volume value for each of a plurality of search queries, the query search volume value for each search query being proportional to a number of times that the search query has been received;

grouping the search queries that have been identified as relevant to a particular topic into a group of queries;

identifying a topic corpus for the group of queries, the topic corpus being documents that were identified as responsive to the search queries in the group of queries;

determining that the particular topic is an underserved topic based on a relative topic corpus quality measure for the topic corpus being less than a threshold value, the relative topic corpus quality measure a measure of relevance of the documents in the topic corpus relative to the query search volume value for the group of queries;

receiving a search query corresponding to the underserved topic; and

providing, in response to receiving the search query, data that causes presentation of a notification that the search query corresponds to an underserved topic.

20. The memory device of claim 19, wherein identifying the underserved topic comprises:

obtaining a measure of relevance of the topic corpus to the particular topic;

computing the topic corpus quality measure based on the measure of relevance for the particular topic;

obtaining a topic search volume value for the particular topic, the topic search volume value for the particular topic being computed based on the query search volume value for each of the queries in the group of queries that correspond to the particular topic; and

obtaining topic corpus quality measures for other topics, the other topics being topics that each have a topic search volume value that is within a threshold value of the topic search volume value for the particular topic;

determining that the topic corpus quality measure for the particular topic is lower than a threshold quality, the threshold quality being computed based on the topic corpus quality measures for the other topics; and

identifying the particular topic as an underserved topic.