Filtering search results using annotations

• US 8,341,150 B1
• Filed: 01/06/2010
• Issued: 12/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Riley, Patrick F., Guha, Ramanathan V.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shmatov, Alexey
• Application Number:
  US12/683,396
• Time in Patent Office: 1,084 Days
• Field of Search: 707/999.005, 707/728, 707/731
• US Class Current: 707/728
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24573 using data annotations, e.g. user-defined metadata
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A search engine system accepts queries that include query terms and labels applicable to certain documents. A domain filter is constructed that is used to filter search results to certain domains, where the domains are determined based on the labels included in the query. The filtered search results are processed to ensure that certain portions of the results are from domains included in the filter. The results are further processed to include the query labels with certain ones of the results.

Claims

1. A method performed by a data processing apparatus, the method comprising:

receiving a search query comprising one or more query terms and one or more labels;

obtaining a plurality of search results responsive to the query terms, wherein each of the search results has a respective score and a respective uniform resource locator, and wherein the plurality of search results are ranked according to the respective scores;

identifying one or more different domains from a plurality of uniform resource locator patterns associated with the labels;

selecting a highest ranked plurality of first search results from the plurality of search results wherein a threshold number of the selected first search results have respective uniform resource locators that contain one of the identified domains;

annotating each first search result of a plurality of the first search results with one or more of the labels that are associated with uniform resource locator patterns that match the respective uniform resource locator of the first search result;

modifying the respective score of one or more of the annotated first search results wherein modifying the score of the annotated first search result comprises adjusting the score by a weight associated with a label annotation of the annotated first search result;

ranking the annotated first search results based on the one or more modified scores; and

providing the ranked annotated first search results as a response to the search query.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting the score by a weight associated with a second annotation label of the particular search result.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein a particular uniform resource locator pattern of the plurality of uniform resource locator patterns includes one or more regular expressions.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein selecting the highest ranked plurality of first search results from the plurality of search results uses a Bloom filter that represents the one or more different domains.

5. A system comprising:

one or more computers;

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium coupled to the one or more computers having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more computers, causes the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

receiving a search query comprising one or more query terms and one or more labels;

obtaining a plurality of search results responsive to the query terms, wherein each of the search results has a respective score and a respective uniform resource locator, and wherein the plurality of search results are ranked according to the respective scores;

identifying one or more different domains from a plurality of uniform resource locator patterns associated with the labels;

selecting a highest ranked plurality of first search results from the plurality of search results wherein a threshold number of the selected first search results have respective uniform resource locators that contain one of the identified domains;

annotating each first search result of a plurality of the first search results with one or more of the labels that are associated with uniform resource locator patterns that match the respective uniform resource locator of the first search result;

modifying the respective score of one or more of the annotated first search results wherein modifying the score of the annotated first search result comprises adjusting the score by a weight associated with a label annotation of the annotated first search result;

ranking the annotated first search results based on the one or more modified scores; and

providing the ranked annotated first search results as a response to the search query.

6. The system of claim 5, further comprising adjusting the score by a weight associated with a second annotation label of the particular search result.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein a particular uniform resource locator pattern of the plurality of uniform resource locator patterns includes one or more regular expressions.

8. The system of claim 5 wherein selecting the highest ranked plurality of first search results from the plurality of search results uses a Bloom filter that represents the one or more different domains.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with a computer program comprising instructions that, when executed, operate to cause a computer to perform operations comprising:

receiving a search query comprising one or more query terms and one or more labels;

obtaining a plurality of search results responsive to the query terms, wherein each of the search results has a respective score and a respective uniform resource locator, and wherein the plurality of search results are ranked according to the respective scores;

identifying one or more different domains from a plurality of uniform resource locator patterns associated with the labels;

selecting a highest ranked plurality of first search results from the plurality of search results wherein a threshold number of the selected first search results have respective uniform resource locators that contain one of the identified domains;

annotating each first search result of a plurality of the first search results with one or more of the labels that are associated with uniform resource locator patterns that match the respective uniform resource locator of the first search result;

modifying the respective score of one or more of the annotated first search results wherein modifying the score of the annotated first search result comprises adjusting the score by a weight associated with a label annotation of the annotated first search result;

ranking the annotated first search results based on the one or more modified scores; and

providing the ranked annotated first search results as a response to the search query.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising adjusting the score by a weight associated with a second annotation label of the particular search result.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 wherein a particular uniform resource locator pattern of the plurality of uniform resource locator patterns includes one or more regular expressions.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 wherein selecting the highest ranked plurality of first search results from the plurality of search results uses a Bloom filter that represents the one or more different domains.