Concept network

• US 8,065,298 B2
• Filed: 07/28/2008
• Issued: 11/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Liu, Shengping, Ma, Wei-Ying, Chen, Zheng
• Primary Examiner(s): EHICHIOYA, IRETE FRED
• Application Number:
  US12/181,251
• Publication Number:
  US 20080281821A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,212 Days
• Field of Search: 707/609, 707/637, 707/705, 707/713, 707/726, 707/769, 707/802, 707/821, 715/205, 715/206, 715/207, 719/315
• US Class Current: 707/726
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9532 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/954 Relational
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/959 Network
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/96 Object-relational
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A concept network that can be generated in response to a user query. Various embodiments include analysis of structure information, for example, where such information is based at least in part on Universal Resource Locators (URLs) of Web sites or data storage locations. A concept network may be used with a search tool where the search tool searches a plurality of sites (e.g., Web sites, data storage locations, etc.). In such an example, each site location is arranged with a node. Certain ones of the nodes are connected by at least one link. The concept network selects a portion of certain ones of the nodes based on the link, wherein the at least one link is used for content purposes.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

under control of one or more processors configured with executable instructions;

receiving a plurality of Universal Resource Locators (URLs) of one or more Web sites that correspond to a plurality of Web pages;

analyzing the plurality of URLs to determine the content of the plurality of URLs and structure information of the one or more Web sites; and

structuring a plurality of web blocks into a concept network based on information contained within the analyzed plurality of URLs and structure information of the one or more Web sites.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the concept network.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising receiving user input in response to the displayed concept network.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether a particular link is an upward link, a downward link, a sibling link, or a crosswise link based on a URL.

5. A method comprising:

under control of one or more processors configured with executable instructions;

accessing a plurality of domain-specific Web sites;

mining information based on structure information and relative content of the plurality of domain-specific Web sites, the structure information comprising information based at least in part on Universal Resource Locators (URLs) associated with the plurality of domain-specific Web sites, the information including link types of the URLs, the link types including one or more of an offspring link, an ancestor link, or a sibling link;

automatically constructing a domain specific taxonomy based on the mined information including the link types; and

formulating a concept network based on the domain specific taxonomy.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the information mining is based on link structure and content.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the concept network is formulated based on entropy.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the concept network is formulated based on mutual information.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the concept network is formulated based on similarity.

10. A method comprising:

under control of one or more processors configured with executable instructions;

generating a concept network, the generation including;

analyzing structure information about a first Web site and a second Web site, the structure information comprising information based at least in part on Universal Resource Locators (URLs) associated with the first Web site and the second Web site;

structuring URLs in the first Web site into a first set of concept network nodes and URLs in the second Web site into a second set of concept network nodes based on a result of the analyzed structure information; and

merging the first set of concept network nodes with the second set of concept network nodes based on a measure of mutual information between at least one of the first set of concept network nodes and at least one of the second set of concept network nodes.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the structural information comprises information based at least in part on hidden concepts within each Web page.

12. A method comprising:

under control of one or more processors configured with executable instructions;

generating a concept network, the generation including

analyzing structure information about a plurality of data storage locations based on a query submitted from a user, the structure information comprising information based at least in part on Universal Resource Locators (URLs) associated with the plurality of data storage locations;

grouping a first set of data storage locations into a first set of concept network nodes and a second set of data storage locations into a second set of concept network nodes; and

merging the first set of concept network nodes with the second set of concept network nodes based on a measure of mutual information between at least one of the first set of concept network nodes and at least one of the second set of concept network nodes.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the structural information comprises information based at least in part on hidden concepts within each data storage locations.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the data storage location comprises a Web page.

15. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for generating a concept network, comprising:

analyzing structure information about a first Web site and a second Web site based on a query submitted from a user, the structure information comprising information based at least in part on Universal Resource Locators (URLs) associated with the first Web site and the second Web site;

structuring URLs in the first Web site into a first set of concept network nodes and URLs in the second Web site into a second set of concept network nodes based on a result of the analyzed structure information; and

merging the first set of concept network nodes with the second set of concept network nodes based on a measure of mutual information between at least one of the first set of concept network nodes and at least one of the second set of concept network nodes.

16. A method comprising:

under control of one or more processors configured with executable instructions;

automatically deriving a domain specific taxonomy, the deriving including;

analyzing structure information about a plurality of data storage locations based on a query submitted from a user, the structure information comprising information based at least in part on Universal Resource Locators (URLs) associated with the plurality of data storage locations;

grouping a first set of data storage locations into a first set of hierarchical concept network nodes and a second set of data storage locations into a second set of hierarchical concept network nodes; and

merging the first set of hierarchical concept network nodes with the second set of hierarchical concept network nodes based on a measure of similarity between at least one of the first set of hierarchical concept network nodes and at least one of the second set of hierarchical concept network nodes.