Determining related keywords based on lifestream feeds

• US 8,112,393 B2
• Filed: 12/05/2008
• Issued: 02/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kumar, Mani, Kothari, Pankaj, Sahni, Saurabh
• Primary Examiner(s): ROBINSON, GRETA LEE
• Application Number:
  US12/329,443
• Publication Number:
  US 20100145939A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,159 Days
• Field of Search: 707/705, 707/709, 707/713, 707/754, 707/689, 707/700, 707/662, 707/666, 707/769, 707/758, 707/759, 707732-734, 707/736, 707/766, 707/767, 707/613, 707/628, 707/631, 707/632, 707/706, 707/707, 707/710, 707/999.01, 707/E17.107, 715/738, 715/758, 715/759
• US Class Current: 707/632
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3334 Selection or weighting of terms from queries, including natural language queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536

Abstract

Embodiments are directed towards providing related keywords determined to be relevant to a search term using life-streaming data to identify the related keywords. Relevancy is determined by performing the related keyword analysis when life-stream services have been updated. Related keywords may be identified for a given search term using a combination of an aggregated life-stream analysis, a user profile based analysis, and/or a community based life-stream analysis. Each of these mechanisms identify a subset of updated life-streams or profiles to be analyzed to identify keywords that co-occur within each life-steam along with the given search term. The resulting co-occurring keywords may then be ordered based on a frequency of occurrence for the subset of life-streams. A weighted combination of the identified related keywords may be used to display related keywords to a user for use in modifying a search query.

Claims

1. A network device, comprising:

a transceiver to send and receive data over a network; and

a processor that is operative to perform actions, including;

identifying a plurality of updates to life-stream feeds;

receiving a search query having at least one search term;

examining the plurality of updates to life-stream feeds to identify a first subset of updates having the at least one search term as a keyword;

examining user profiles associated with each of the plurality of user profiles to identify at a second subset of updates to life-stream feeds for which the respective user profile includes the at least one search term as a keyword;

searching each of the first and the second subsets of updates to life-stream feeds to identify other keywords co-occurring with the at least one search term; and

providing at least some of the identified keywords as related keywords to the at least one search term to a client device, such that at least one of the identified keywords is useable to modify the search query.

2. The network device of claim 1, wherein receiving the at least one search term further comprises receiving at least one other search term from within a web page.

3. The network device of claim 1, wherein the processor is operative to perform actions, further including:

examining the plurality of updates to life-stream feeds to identify a third subset of updates associated with at least one community of activities having at least one search term as a keyword;

searching the third subset of updates to life-stream feeds to identify additional keywords co-occurring with the at least one search term;

combining the additional keywords with the identified keywords from the first and the second subsets of updates to life-stream feeds; and

providing at least some of the identified keywords as related keywords from the combination of keywords of the first, second, and third subsets to the client device.

4. The network device of claim 1, wherein identifying other keywords co-occurring further comprises:

determining a frequency of occurrence of the identified other keywords;

sorting the identified other keywords based on the determined frequencies of occurrence; and

providing at least some of the sorted other keywords, by providing at least a first set of other keywords having a frequency of occurrence over a defined number.

5. The network device of claim 1, wherein identifying the other keywords co-occurring further comprises:

searching for explicit or implicit tags within content associated with the updated life-stream feeds for keywords entered by an author of the content, a viewer of the content, or determining keywords based on an analysis of the content.

6. The network device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of updates to life-stream feeds is examined virtually in real time such that the related keywords are determined to have a time relevancy.

7. A system that is operative to manage a search query, comprising:

an aggregator configured to crawl a plurality of network sites to retrieve updates to content at one or more of the plurality of network sites and provide a plurality of updates to life-stream feeds; and

a keyword management component having computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions when installed onto a computing device enable the computing device to perform actions, comprising;

receiving a search query having at least one search term;

examining the plurality of updates to life-stream feeds to identify a first subset of updates associated with at least one community of activities having the at least one search term as a keyword;

examining user profiles associated with the plurality of profiles to identify at a second subset of updates to life-stream feeds for which the respective user profile includes the at least one search term as a keyword;

searching each of the first and the second subsets of updates to life-stream feeds to identify other keywords co-occurring with the at least one search term;

sorting the identified other keywords based on a frequency of occurrence of the other keywords; and

providing at least some of the sorted keywords as related keywords to the at least one search term to a client device, such that at least one of the identified keywords is useable to modify the search query.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the keyword management component enables the computing device to perform actions, further comprising:

examining the plurality of updates to life-stream feeds to identify a third subset of updates having the at least one search term as a keyword;

searching each of the third subset of updates to life-stream feeds to identify other keywords co-occurring with the at least one search term; and

combining the identified keywords from the searching of the first, second, and third subsets to generate another set of related keywords that are ordered based on a frequency of occurrences in the first, second, and third subsets.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the plurality of updates to life-stream feeds is determined as updates to content for life-stream feeds within a sliding window.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein sorting the identified other keywords further comprises weighting the other keywords based on whether the keywords are identified from the first subset or the second subset.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein sorting the identified other keywords further comprises weighting the other keywords to modify a position in the sort order of at least one other keyword associated with an advertiser.

12. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions when installed onto a computing device enable the computing device to perform actions, comprising:

receiving a search query having at least one search term;

examining a plurality of updates to life-stream feeds to identify a first subset of updates associated with at least one community of activities having the at least one search term within associated content;

examining user profiles associated with the plurality of profiles to identify at a second subset of updates to life-stream feeds for which the respective user profile includes the at least one search term within associated content or user profile;

searching each of the first and the second subsets of updates to life-stream feeds to identify keywords co-occurring with the at least one search term;

sorting the identified keywords based on a frequency of occurrence of the other keywords; and

providing at least some of the identified keywords as related keywords to the at least one search term to a client device, such that at least one of the identified keywords is useable to modify the search query.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the plurality of updates to life-stream feeds is determined based further on a sliding window.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein sorting the identified keywords further comprises modifying a sort order to emphasize a keyword associated with an advertiser.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the computer-executable instructions enable the computing device to perform actions, further comprising:

examining the plurality of updates to life-stream feeds to identify a third subset of updates having the at least one search term in associated content;

searching the third subset of updates to life-stream feeds to identify other keywords co-occurring with the at least one search term; and

combining the identified other keywords from the search of the third subset with the identified keywords from the first and second subset.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein a keyword is identified based on at least one of a tag, a label, or a result of an analysis of associated content or user profile.

17. A method that modifies a computing device such that the computing device is enabled to perform a search query, comprising:

receiving a plurality of updates to content from life-stream feeds;

receiving a search query having at least one search term;

examining the plurality of updates to content from life-stream feeds to identify a first subset of updates having the at least one search term as a keyword;

examining the plurality of users to content from profiles to identify at a second subset of updates for which the respective user profile includes the at least one search term as a keyword;

searching each of the first and the second subsets to identify other keywords co-occurring with the at least one search term;

sorting the identified other keywords based on a frequency of occurrence in the subsets; and

providing at least some of the sorted keywords as related keywords to the at least one search term to a client device, such that at least one of the identified keywords is useable to modify the search query.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein sorting the identified other keywords further comprises modifying a sort order to emphasize a keyword associated with an advertiser.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the plurality of updates to life-stream feeds is examined virtually in real time such that the related keywords are determined to have a time relevancy.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the plurality of updates to life-stream feeds is determined based on a sliding window that is configured to age out updates to life-stream feeds over time.