Methods and apparatus for employing usage statistics in document retrieval

• US 8,156,100 B2
• Filed: 02/24/2011
• Issued: 04/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Dean, Jeffrey A., Gomes, Benedict A., Bharat, Krishna, Harik, Georges, Henzinger, Monika H.
• Primary Examiner(s): AL HASHEMI, SANA A
• Application Number:
  US13/034,000
• Publication Number:
  US 20110179023A1
• Time in Patent Office: 411 Days
• Field of Search: 707/706, 707/708, 707/716, 707/721, 707/727, 707/728, 707/731
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

Methods and apparatus consistent with the invention provide improved organization of documents responsive to a search query. In one embodiment, a search query is received and a list of responsive documents is identified. The responsive documents are organized based in whole or in part on usage statistics.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

identifying, at a server, a plurality of sites, each of the sites hosting a respective plurality of documents;

accessing, at the server, usage information associated with each of the plurality of sites, the usage information including, for each site;

a frequency of visit value based on a number of times the documents hosted by the site were visited during a time period; and

a unique visit value based on a number of unique visitors to the documents hosted by the site;

determining, at the server, for each site, a usage score from the frequency of visit value and the unique visit value for the site; and

determining, at the server, an organization for the documents based on the usage scores for the respective sites hosting the documents.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining at the server, for each document, a path length score from a path of the document;

wherein determining the usage score from the frequency of visit value and the unique visit value for the site;

comprises determining the usage score from the frequency of visit value and the unique visit value associated with the documents hosted by the site and the path length score of the documents hosted by the site.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the usage score from the frequency of visit value and the unique visit value for the site;

comprises;

determining a frequency of visit score based on the frequency of visit value and a maximum frequency of visit value;

determining a unique user score based on the unique visit value and a maximum unique visit value; and

determining the usage score from the frequency of visit score and the unique user score.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein:

determining the frequency of visit score based on the frequency of visit value and the maximum frequency of visit value comprises determining the frequency of visit score based on a log ratio of the frequency of visit value to the maximum frequency of visit value; and

determining the unique user score based on the unique visit value and the maximum unique visit value comprises determining the unique user score based on a ratio of the unique visit value to the maximum unique visit value.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein, for each site:

the frequency of visit value is equal to the number of times the documents hosted by the site were visited during the time period; and

the unique visit value is equal to the number of unique visitors to the documents hosted by the site during the time period.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein, for each site, the frequency of visit value is equal to a percentage change based on the number times the documents hosted by the site were visited during the time period and the number of times the documents hosted by the site were visited during a previous time period.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein, for each site, the unique visit value is equal to a percentage change based on the number of unique visitors to the documents hosted by the site during the time period and a number of unique visitors to the documents hosted by the site during a previous time period.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein, for each site, the number of unique visitors to the documents hosted by the site is determined from visitor statistics that exclude visits associated with automated agents.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein, for each site, the frequency of visit value is based on weighted visit counts, each visit count weighted based on a geographic location that is the geographic source of the visit.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a search query for which the documents are determined to be responsive; and

wherein determining the organization for the documents comprises defining an order of the documents for ordering the documents in a descending order of relevance based on the usage scores for the sites hosting the documents and information retrieval scores that measure a relevance of the documents to the search query.

11. An apparatus, comprising:

memory hardware storing program instructions; and

one or more processors in data communication with the memory hardware and configured to execute the program instructions, and upon execution the program instructions cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

identifying, at a server, a plurality of sites, each of the sites hosting a respective plurality of documents;

accessing at the server usage information associated with each of the plurality of sites, the usage information including, for each site;

a frequency of visit value based on a number of times the documents hosted by the site were visited during a time period; and

a unique visit value based on a number of unique visitors to the documents hosted by the site;

determining, at the server, for each site, a usage score from the frequency of visit value and the unique visit value for the site; and

determining, at the server, an organization for the documents based on the usage scores for the respective sites hosting the documents.

12. A computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying at a server a plurality of sites, each of the sites hosting a respective plurality of documents;

wherein the plurality of sites include at least one site visited by multiple distinct counted visitors during a time period;

accessing, at the server, usage information associated with each of the plurality of sites hosting the documents, the usage information including, for each site;

(i) a frequency of visit value based on a total number of times the site was visited by all counted visitors visiting the documents hosting by the site during a time period; and

(ii) a unique visit value based on a number of unique visitors among all counted visitors visiting the respective documents hosted by the site;

determining at the server, for each site, a usage score from the frequency of visit value and the unique visit value for the site; and

determining, at the server, an organization for the documents based on the usage scores for the respective sites hosting the documents.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein determining the usage score from the frequency of visit value and the unique visit value for the site comprises:

determining a frequency of visit score based on a log ratio of the frequency of visit value to a maximum frequency of visit value;

determining the unique user score based on a ratio of the unique visit value to a maximum unique visit value; and

determining the usage score from the frequency of visit score and the unique user score.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein, for each site:

the frequency of visit value is equal to the number of times the documents hosted by the site were visited during the time period; and

the unique visit value is equal to the number of unique visitors to the documents hosted by the site during the time period.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein, for each site:

the frequency of visit value is equal to a percentage change based on the number times the documents hosted by the site were visited during the time period and the number of times the documents hosted by the site were visited during a previous time period; and

the unique visit value is equal to a percentage change based on the number of unique visitors to the documents hosted by the site during the time period and a number of unique visitors to the documents hosted by the site during a previous time period.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein, for each site, the frequency of visit value is based on weighted visit counts, each visit count weighted based on a geographic location that is the geographic source of the visit.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a search query for which the documents are determined to be responsive; and

wherein determining the organization for the documents comprises defining an order of the documents for ordering the documents in a descending order of relevance based on the usage scores for the respective sites hosting the documents and information retrieval scores that measure a relevance of the documents to the search query.

18. An apparatus, comprising:

memory hardware storing program instructions, and

one or more processors in data communication with the memory hardware and configured to execute the program instructions, and upon execution the program instructions cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

identifying at a server a plurality of sites, each of the sites hosting a respective plurality of documents;

wherein the plurality of sites include at least one site visited by multiple distinct counted visitors during a time period;

accessing, at the server, usage information associated with each of the plurality of sites hosting the documents, the usage information including, for each site;

(i) a frequency of visit value based on a total number of times the site was visited by all counted visitors visiting the documents hosted by the site during a time period; and

(ii) a unique visit value based on a number of unique visitors among all counted visitors visiting the respective documents hosted by the site;

determining, for each site, a usage score from the frequency of visit value and the unique visit value for the site; and

determining an organization for the documents based on the usage scores for the respective sites hosting the documents.

19. Software stored in a computer readable storage device and comprising instructions executable by a data processing apparatus and upon such execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

identifying at a server a plurality of sites, each of the sites hosting a respective plurality of documents;

wherein the plurality of sites include at least one site visited by multiple distinct counted visitors during a time period;

accessing, at the server, usage information associated with each of the plurality of sites hosting the documents, the usage information including, for each site;

(i) a frequency of visit value based on a total number of times the site was visited by all counted visitors visiting the documents hosted by the site during a time period; and

(ii) a unique visit value based on a number of unique visitors among all counted visitors visiting the respective documents hosted by the site;

determining, for each site a usage score from the frequency of visit value and the unique visit value for the site; and

determining an organization for the documents based on the usage scores for the respective sites hosting the documents.

20. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

identifying, at a server, a plurality of documents responsive to a search query;

identifying for each document a site that hosts the document, wherein at least two different sites are identified;

accessing, at the server, usage information associated with the sites, the usage information including, for each site;

a frequency of visit value based on a number of times the document hosted by the site and other documents hosted by the site was visited during a time period; and

a unique visit value based on a number of unique visitors to the document hosted by the site and to other documents hosted by the site during the time period;

determining, at the server, for each site, a usage score from the frequency of visit value and the unique visit value for the site; and

determining, at the server, an organization for the documents based on the usage scores for the respective sites hosting the documents.

21. An apparatus, comprising:

memory hardware storing program instructions; and

one or more processors in data communication with the memory hardware and configured to execute the program instructions, and upon execution the program instructions cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

identifying a plurality of documents responsive to a search query;

identifying for each document a site that hosts the document, wherein at least two different sites are identified;

accessing, at the server, usage information associated with the sites, the usage information including, for each site;

a frequency of visit value based on a number of times the document hosted by the site and other documents hosted by the site was visited during a time period; and

a unique visit value based on a number of unique visitors to the document hosted by the site and to other documents hosted by the site during the time period;

determining, at the server, for each site, a usage score from the frequency of visit value and the unique visit value for the site; and

determining, at the server, an organization for the documents based on the usage scores for the respective sites hosting the documents.