Product suggestions and bypassing irrelevant query results

• US 8,086,590 B2
• Filed: 04/25/2008
• Issued: 12/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Zheng, Can, Mody, Jigar Vijay, Mikhailov, Mikhail
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong, Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): DANG, THANH HA T
• Application Number:
  US12/110,137
• Publication Number:
  US 20090271390A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,341 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/3, 707/5, 707/104.1, 707/999.001, 707/999.003, 707/999.005, 707/999.107, 707/706, 707/707, 707/708, 707/709, 707/713, 707/723, 707/726, 707/765, 707/766, 707/768, 707/769, 707/771, 707/779
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90324 using system suggestions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A computer system, computer media, and computer-implemented method for generating product suggestions and providing product information are provided. The computer system includes a relevance engine, a product database, and a graphical user interface to respond to user queries and to provide product details associated with one or more products included in the user queries. The relevance engine determines which products are similar to products included in the user queries. The graphical user interface displays product suggestions that refine the user queries without executing the query on the product database, where a subset of the product suggestions are linked to product details pages. User selection of any of the product suggestions within the subset directs the user to a product details page for a specific product and bypasses a listing of results having many products that match the refined user queries.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed by a computing device, perform a method to generate product suggestions, the method comprising:

receiving a user query for a product;

parsing the user query to determine whether the user query is a general product query or a specific product query;

if the user query is the general product query, presenting a user with one or more query refinements corresponding to specific products that are associated with the general product query and receiving a user selection of the one or more query refinements for at least one of the specific products without executing the one or more query refinements on a database, and formulating a new specific product query based on the user selection of the one or more query refinements; and

if the user query is the specific product query, generating a product suggestions message relevant to the specific product query, the product suggestions message comprising one or more marked product suggestions linked to a respective one or more product details pages and comprising one or more unmarked product suggestions;

receiving the product details pages from a product database for each of the marked product suggestions selected by the user; and

returning the product details pages for each of the marked product suggestions selected by the user in response to the specific product query.

2. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the one or more marked product suggestions and the one or more unmarked product suggestions are generated remotely in response to the user generating the user query.

3. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the query refinements are displayed in a graphical user interface element.

4. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 3, wherein the graphical user interface element is a drop-down box.

5. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 4, wherein the drop-down box is populated with additional suggestions simultaneously with the user providing query strings.

6. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein a relevant product details page includes similar trade name products similar price products, product accessories, or product reviews for the specific products.

7. A computer-implemented method for providing product suggestion information, the computer-implemented method using a computing device having memory, processor, and database subsystems and comprising:

crawling a plurality of sources via a computer system processor;

extracting product information comprising product identifiers, name, size, color, and price for each individual product included in the plurality of sources;

storing the product identifiers, name, size, color, and price for each individual product in a product database;

categorizing each individual product based on a type, a trade name, and the price;

generating a product suggestions message in response to a specific product query from a user, the product suggestions message comprising one or more marked product suggestions linked to a respective one or more product details pages; and

continuously returning the one or more product details pages for each marked product suggestion stored in the product database that is relevant to partial query strings formulated by the user as the user inputs additional query strings until the user completes the query strings.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of sources provide product offers, product reviews, product descriptions, and other product documents.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of sources include electronic product documents and non-electronic product documents.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the product information is returned via a graphical user interface element that displays the product identifiers, name, size, color, or price for each relevant product that corresponds to the query strings received from the user.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the graphical user interface element is a drop-down box.

12. The computer system of claim 7, wherein relevance is based on user clicks, similarity between the query strings and product information stored in the product database, and product popularity.

13. A computer system having processors and computer readable media configured for providing product suggestion information, the computer system further comprising:

a product database to store product details pages for a plurality of associated specific products included in electronic and non-electronic documents received from a plurality of sources;

a graphical user interface (GUI) having a search box to receive a user query;

a relevance engine to receive the user query and to search the product database to locate relevant specific products and associated product details pages that match the user query;

a drop-down box that supplements the search box and provides a user with additional terms for the user query, wherein the additional terms are linked to one or more of the product details pages;

a product suggestions message comprising one or more marked product suggestions linked to one or more of the associated product details pages in response to a user specific products query via the GUI; and

a user display of one or more of the product details pages associated with the one or more marked product suggestions selected by the user via the GUI.

14. The computer system of claim 13, wherein user selection of the additional terms redirects the user to the product details page.

15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the additional terms that are linked to the product details page are marked to differentiate the additional terms linked to the product details page from other additional terms that are not linked to the product details page.

16. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the marked additional terms include unique formatting, additional characters, icons, graphics, or other special annotations.

17. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the product details page includes product price, color, style, availability and ordering information.

18. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the product details page is displayed without obtaining a list of search results.