Systems and methods for document searching

• US 8,145,654 B2
• Filed: 06/20/2008
• Issued: 03/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RELX Inc. (RELX PLC)
• Original Assignee: LexisNexis Group Inc. (RELX PLC)
• Inventors: Miller, David James
• Primary Examiner(s): Radtke, Mark Andrew X
• Application Number:
  US12/213,538
• Publication Number:
  US 20090319510A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,376 Days
• Field of Search: 707/757
• US Class Current: 707/757
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/31 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for document searching. In one implementation, a computer-implemented method provides keyword searching. The method may receive a plurality of noisy keywords for a document collection. A server may generate tokens for a plurality of keywords in the document collection and merge the tokens to create an index. A search query may be received. The search query may include at least one search phrase. For the at least one search phrase, an indication may be received from a user specifying to perform one of a noisy phrase search or a noiseless phrase search. The method may search the index for the at least one search phrase based on the indication received from the user.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for keyword searching, the method comprising:

generating, by a server, tokens for a plurality of keywords in a document collection, wherein the generating further comprises determining a keyword position of a keyword in a document of the document collection, and determining a number of noisy keywords preceding the keyword in the document;

merging the tokens to create an index;

receiving a search query, wherein the search query includes at least one search phrase;

receiving, for the at least one search phrase, an indication from a user specifying to perform one of a noisy phrase search or a noiseless phrase search;

searching the index for the at least one search phrase based on the indication received from the user; and

when the indication from the user specifies a noiseless phrase search, performing the noiseless phrase search at least in part by subtracting a value of the keyword position by the number of noisy keywords preceding the keyword.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein creating a token for one of the keywords further comprises:

determining whether the keyword is a noisy keyword by comparing the keyword to the plurality of noisy keywords;

tagging the keyword with a noisy keyword tag when the keyword is determined to be a noisy keyword; and

outputting the token, wherein the token comprises a document identifier, the noisy keyword tag, the keyword position, and the number of noisy keywords preceding the keyword.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the noisy phrase search includes the noisy keywords in the search query and the noiseless phrase search ignores the noisy keywords in the search query.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of noisy keywords are specific to a particular document.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein searching the index further comprises:

determining whether the at least one search phrase is surrounded by quotations; and

when the at least one search phrase is surrounded by quotations, performing a noisy phrase search, and when the at least one search phrase is not surrounded by quotations, performing a noiseless phrase search.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein searching the index further comprises tokenizing the search query prior to performing the search.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the search query includes both noisy search phrases and noiseless search phrases.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the noisy keywords offer limited value in search processing while introducing additional processing costs.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the number of noisy keywords is the number of consecutive noisy keywords directly preceding the at least one of the keywords in the document of the document collection.