Phrase extraction using subphrase scoring

• US 8,402,033 B1
• Filed: 10/14/2011
• Issued: 03/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Mazumdar, Soham, Przebinda, Viktor, Zunger, Yonatan
• Primary Examiner(s): Singh, Amresh
• Application Number:
  US13/274,238
• Time in Patent Office: 522 Days
• Field of Search: 707/748, 707/713
• US Class Current: 707/748
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/313 Selection or weighting of terms for indexing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

An information retrieval system uses phrases to index, retrieve, organize and describe documents. Phrases are extracted from the document collection. Documents are the indexed according to their included phrases, using phrase posting lists. The phrase posting lists are stored in an cluster of index servers. The phrase posting lists can be tiered into groups, and sharded into partitions. Phrases in a query are identified based on possible phrasifications. A query schedule based on the phrases is created from the phrases, and then optimized to reduce query processing and communication costs. The execution of the query schedule is managed to further reduce or eliminate query processing operations at various ones of the index servers.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of extracting a set of valid phrases from a plurality of documents, the method comprising:

for each document;

identifying a plurality of candidate phrases contained in the document, wherein a candidate phrase includes multiple consecutive words that appear in the document;

scoring candidate phrases in the document to produce document phrase scores for the candidate phrases for the document, the document phrase scores for a candidate phrase being based on instances of the candidate phrase that appear in the document,

wherein scoring a candidate phrase in the document to produce a document phrase score includes;

determining for the candidate phrase two or more subphrases within the candidate phrase, wherein a subphrase contains two or more words; and

scoring each determined subphrase in the document as a function of the position of the subphrase relative to a sequence of words containing the candidate phrase;

for at least one of the candidate phrases;

creating, via a processor, a combined score for the candidate phrase based on a plurality of different document phrase scores for the candidate phrase for respective different documents; and

determining whether the candidate phrase is a valid phrase based on the combined score for the candidate phrase and based on the document phrase scores for the candidate phrase.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a plurality of candidate phrases contained in the document further comprises:

identifying as a candidate phrase a sequence of words in the document terminated by a semantic marker.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the semantic marker is any one of group consisting of a linguistic, grammatical, structural, or typographic indicator.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein scoring a candidate phrase in the document to produce a document phrase score for the candidate phrase further includes:

scoring instances of the candidate phrase in the document to produce an instance phrase score, the instance phrase score being further based on typeface characteristics of the instance of the candidate phrase within the document.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the candidate phrase is a valid phrase based on the combined score and based on the document phrase scores comprises:

determining a candidate phrase to be valid phrase when a maximum value of the document phrase scores exceeds a first threshold.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the candidate phrase is a valid phrase based on the combined score and based on the document phrase scores comprises:

determining a candidate phrase to be valid phrase when the combined score exceeds a second threshold.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the candidate phrase is a valid phrase based on the combined score and based on the document phrase scores comprises:

determining a candidate phrase to be valid phrase when the number of documents for which the candidate phrase had at least a minimum document phrase score exceeds a third threshold.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a plurality of candidate phrases contained in the document further comprises:

identifying as a candidate phrase every sequence of N words in the document, where N is an integer greater than 2.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the candidate phrase is a valid phrase based on the combined score and based on the document phrase scores comprises:

determining a candidate phrase to be valid phrase when a maximum value of the document phrase scores exceeds a first threshold, or when the combined score exceeds a second threshold, or when the number of documents for which the candidate phrase had at least a minimum document phrase score exceeds a third threshold.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a plurality of candidate phrases contained in the document includes:

determining that a score for the identified candidate phrases is below a threshold score used to indicate that a candidate phrases is likely to be a valid phrase.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium, having stored thereon, computer program code that, when executed, causes a computer system to extract a set of valid phrases from a plurality of documents, by:

for each document;

identifying a plurality of candidate phrases contained in the document, wherein a candidate phrase includes multiple consecutive words that appear in the document;

scoring candidate phrases in the document to produce document phrase scores for the candidate phrases for the document, the document phrase scores for a candidate phrase being based on instances of the candidate phrase that appear in the document,

wherein scoring a candidate phrase in the document to produce a document phrase score for the candidate phrase includes;

determining for the candidate phrase two or more subphrases within the candidate phrase, wherein a subphrase contains two or more words; and

scoring each determined subphrase in the document as a function of the position of the subphrase relative to a sequence of words containing the candidate phrase; and

for at least one of the candidate phrases;

creating, via a processor of the computer system, a combined score for the candidate phrase based on a plurality of different document phrase scores for the candidate phrase for respective different documents; and

determining whether the candidate phrase is a valid phrase based on the combined score for the candidate phrase and based on the document phrase scores for the candidate phrase.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein identifying a plurality of candidate phrases contained in the document further comprises:

identifying as a candidate phrase a sequence of words in the document terminated by a semantic marker.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the semantic marker is any one of group consisting of a linguistic, grammatical, structural, or typographic indicator.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein scoring a candidate phrase in the document to produce a document phrase score for the candidate phrase further includes:

scoring instances of the candidate phrase in the document to produce an instance phrase score, the instance phrase score being further based on typeface characteristics of the instance of the candidate phrase within the document.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein determining whether the candidate phrase is a valid phrase based on the combined score and based on the document phrase scores comprises:

determining a candidate phrase to be valid phrase when a maximum value of the document phrase scores exceeds a first threshold, or when the combined score exceeds a second threshold, or when the number of documents for which the candidate phrase had at least a minimum document phrase score exceeds a third threshold.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein identifying a plurality of candidate phrases contained in the document includes:

determining that a score for the identified candidate phrases is below a threshold score used to indicate that a candidate phrases is likely to be a valid phrase.

17. A system for extracting a set of valid phrases from a plurality of documents, the system comprising:

one or more computer readable media comprising executable instructions; and

one or more processors configured to execute the instructions, wherein execution of the instructions causes the system to,

for each document;

identify a plurality of candidate phrases contained in the document, wherein a candidate phrase includes multiple consecutive words that appear in the document;

score candidate phrases in the document to produce document phrase scores for the candidate phrases for the document, the document phrase scores for a candidate phrase being based on instances of the candidate phrase that appear in the document,

wherein scoring a candidate phrase in the document to produce a document phrase score for the candidate phrase includes;

determining for the candidate phrase two or more subphrases within the candidate phrase, wherein a subphrase contains two or more words; and

scoring each determined subphrase in the document as a function of the position of the subphrase relative to a sequence of words containing the candidate phrase; and

for at least one of the candidate phrases;

create, via a processor of the computer system, a combined score for the candidate phrase based on a plurality of different document phrase scores for the candidate phrase for respective different documents; and

determine whether the candidate phrase is a valid phrase based on the combined score for the candidate phrase and based on the document phrase scores for the candidate phrase.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein identifying a plurality of candidate phrases contained in the document further includes:

identifying as a candidate phrase a sequence of words in the document terminated by a semantic marker.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the semantic marker is any one of a group consisting of a linguistic, grammatical, structural, or typographic indicator.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein scoring a candidate phrase in the document to produce a document phrase score for the candidate phrase further includes:

scoring instances of the candidate phrase in the document to produce an instance phrase score, the instance phrase score being further based on typeface characteristics of the instance of the candidate phrase within the document.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein determining whether the candidate phrase is a valid phrase based on the combined score and based on the document phrase scores includes:

determining a candidate phrase to be valid phrase when a maximum value of the document phrase scores exceeds a first threshold.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein determining whether the candidate phrase is a valid phrase based on the combined score and based on the document phrase scores includes:

determining a candidate phrase to be valid phrase when the combined score exceeds a second threshold.

23. The system of claim 17, wherein determining whether the candidate phrase is a valid phrase based on the combined score and based on the document phrase scores includes:

determining a candidate phrase to be valid phrase when the number of documents for which the candidate phrase had at least a minimum document phrase score exceeds a third threshold.

24. The system of claim 17, wherein identifying a plurality of candidate phrases contained in the document further includes:

identifying as a candidate phrase every sequence of N words, where N is an integer greater than 2.

25. The system of claim 17, wherein determining whether the candidate phrase is a valid phrase based on the combined score and based on the document phrase scores includes:

determining a candidate phrase to be valid phrase when a maximum value of the document phrase scores exceeds a first threshold, or when the combined score exceeds a second threshold, or when the number of documents for which the candidate phrase had at least a minimum document phrase score exceeds a third threshold.

26. The system of claim 17, wherein identifying a plurality of candidate phrases contained in the document includes:

determining that a score for the identified candidate phrases is below a threshold score used to indicate that a candidate phrases is likely to be a valid phrase.