Filtering search results using annotations

• US 8,577,878 B1
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Issued: 11/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Guha, Ramanathan, Riley, Patrick F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shmatov, Alexey
• Application Number:
  US13/620,661
• Time in Patent Office: 417 Days
• Field of Search: 707/728, 707/999.003
• 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 wherein the plurality of search results are ranked according to the respective scores;

filtering a specified number of the search results in ranked order based on a respective uniform resource locator of each search result to form a plurality of filtered search results;

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

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

ranking the annotated search results based on the one or more modified scores.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

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

3. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the score of the annotated search result further comprises adjusting the score by a second weight associated with a second label annotation of the annotated search result.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the filtering further comprises:

creating a domain filter that identifies domains of documents that are known to have labels that match a label of the one or more labels of the search query.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein creating the domain filter is based on selecting annotations that have labels that match the one or more labels of the search query, wherein the annotations include respective domains.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein each annotation includes a pattern for a uniform resource locator and a label to be applied to a document whose uniform resourced locator matches the pattern.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein filtering the search results includes a domain prefix of the documents in the search results to domain prefixes included in the domain filter.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the filtering is performed such that a predetermined minimum portion of the search results match the domain prefixes in the domain filter.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising:

determining that the received search query includes one or more labels based on identifying a specific token in the search query.

10. A system comprising:

one or more computers configured 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 wherein the plurality of search results are ranked according to the respective scores;

filtering a specified number of the search results in ranked order based on a respective uniform resource locator of each search result to form a plurality of filtered search results;

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

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

ranking the annotated search results based on the one or more modified scores.

11. The system of claim 10, configured to perform operations comprising:

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

12. The system of claim 10, wherein modifying the score of the annotated search result further comprises adjusting the score by a second weight associated with a second label annotation of the annotated search result.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the filtering further comprises:

creating a domain filter that identifies domains of documents that are known to have labels that match a label of the one or more labels of the search query.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein creating the domain filter is based on selecting annotations that have labels that match the one or more labels of the search query, wherein the annotations include respective domains.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein each annotation includes a pattern for a uniform resource locator and a label to be applied to a document whose uniform resourced locator matches the pattern.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein filtering the search results includes a domain prefix of the documents in the search results to domain prefixes included in the domain filter.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the filtering is performed such that a predetermined minimum portion of the search results match the domain prefixes in the domain filter.

18. The system of claim 10, configured to perform operations comprising:

determining that the received search query includes one or more labels based on identifying a specific token in the search query.

19. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause 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 wherein the plurality of search results are ranked according to the respective scores;

filtering a specified number of the search results in ranked order based on a respective uniform resource locator of each search result to form a plurality of filtered search results;

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

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

ranking the annotated search results based on the one or more modified scores.