Infinite browse

• US 8,600,979 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2010
• Issued: 12/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yahoo Assets LLC
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kim, Yookyung, Zhao, Hongjian, Li, Xin, Levich, Alexandra, Chi, Tom, Sui, Ming, Zhao, Yihong, Davis, Marc
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, ANHTAI V
• Application Number:
  US12/825,304
• Publication Number:
  US 20110320437A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,254 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/722
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2457 with adaptation to user needs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

An online article is enhanced by displaying, in association with the article, supplemental content that includes entities that are extracted from the article and/or entities that are related to entities that are extracted from the article. The supplemental content further includes information about each of the entities. The information about an entity may be obtained by searching for the entity in one or more searchable repositories of data. For example, the supplemental content may include, for each entity, video, image, web, and/or news search results. The supplemental content may further include information such as stock quotes, abstracts, maps, scores, and so on. The entities are selected using a variety of analyses and ranking techniques based on contextual factors such as user-specific information, time-sensitive popularity trends, grammatical features, search result quality, and so on. The entities may further be selected for purposes such as generating ad-based revenue.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

extracting a set of constituent entities from an article;

selecting a set of primary entities, each primary entity in the set of primary entities originating from the set of constituent entities;

based on the set of primary entities, selecting a set of related entities;

wherein selecting the set of related entities comprises;

for each primary entity in the set of primary entities, searching for co-occurring related entities that co-occur with the primary entity in entries within;

a repository of one or more search query logs;

wherein selecting the set of related entities further comprises;

for each primary entity in the set of primary entities, selecting one or more related entities based at least on said searching and a ranking process based on co-occurrence frequencies;

forming a set of candidate entities that includes both primary entities from the set of primary entities and related entities from the set of related entities;

ranking the set of candidate entities, wherein the ranking includes determining a rank of each primary entity in the set of candidate entities relative to both the primary entities and the related entities in the set of candidate entities, and determining a rank of each related entity in the set of candidate entities relative to both the primary entities and the related entities in the set of candidate entities;

selecting a final set of entities from the set of candidate entities based on the ranking of the set of candidate entities, wherein the final set of entities is smaller than the candidate set of entities;

generating a supplement, to the article, comprising search results for each entity in the final set of entities;

wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplement further comprises each entity in the final set of entities.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein the supplement is a first supplement generated at a first time;

wherein one or more of the steps of ranking the set of candidate entities, selecting the set of related entities, or selecting the set of primary entities are based at least partially upon a set of features;

wherein the method further comprises performing the steps of claim 1 at a second time to generate a second supplement; and

wherein the second supplement differs from the first supplement as a result of a time-sensitive change to at least one feature in the set of features.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the steps of ranking the set of candidate entities, selecting the set of related entities, or selecting the set of primary entities are based at least partially upon user-specific data, wherein the user-specific data includes at least one of a search history for the user or a browsing history for the user.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing a client to display the supplement to a user in association with a display of the article.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing a client to display the supplement to a user inline within a structured document comprising the article and the supplement, in response to a request from the client for the article.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplement comprises, for each entity in the final set of entities, a set of federated search results, wherein each federated search result in the set of federated search results includes at least two sets of search results, the at least two sets pertaining to at least two different search repositories.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least the step of generating a supplement to the article is performed dynamically, in response to a request for the supplement, wherein the request indicates the article.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying one or more entities of the primary entities or the related entities based on a user associated with the request.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the supplement comprises generating a different section for each particular entity in the final set of entities, each different section displaying federated search results obtained for the corresponding particular entity, wherein the federated search results displayed in a particular section comprises at least a first subsection comprising one or more document summaries of one or more documents returned by searching a repository of documents for the corresponding particular entity and a second subsection comprising one or more media items returned by searching a repository of media items for the same corresponding particular entity.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the supplement comprises identifying which of a plurality of different federated search templates to use for each particular entity in the final set of entities, and generating a federated search result within the supplement for each particular entity in the final set of entities, based on which of the plurality of different federated search templates was identified for the particular entity.

12. The method of claim 1,

wherein selecting the final set of entities further comprises determining whether search results for each candidate entities meets constraints associated with one or more search results templates;

wherein the constraints for each particular template of the one or more search results templates at least indicate minimum numbers of high-quality search results, from each of a plurality of different search verticals, that must be returned for an entity in order for search results for that entity to be formatted according to the particular template;

wherein the search results in the supplement are formatted according to at least one matching template from the one or more search results templates.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplement comprises a plurality of tabs, each of the tabs configured to swap into view a different section, of a plurality of sections, that corresponds to the tab, each of the plurality of sections corresponding to a different entity in the final set of entities, each of the tabs comprising a label identifying the different entity that corresponds to the different section, each of the plurality of sections comprising search results for the corresponding different entity.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the set of related entities further comprises, for each primary entity in the set of primary entities, searching for co-occurring related entities that co-occur with the primary entity in entries within:

a corpus of articles and a repository of human-entered relationship data.

15. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more computing devices, cause performance of steps of:

extracting a set of constituent entities from an article;

selecting a set of primary entities, each primary entity in the set of primary entities originating from the set of constituent entities;

based on the set of primary entities, selecting a set of related entities;

wherein selecting the set of related entities comprises;

for each primary entity in the set of primary entities, searching for co-occurring related entities that co-occur with the primary entity in entries within;

a repository of one or more search query logs;

wherein selecting the set of related entities further comprises;

for each primary entity in the set of primary entities, selecting one or more related entities based at least on said searching and a ranking process based on co-occurrence frequencies;

forming a set of candidate entities that includes both primary entities from the set of primary entities and related entities from the set of related entities;

ranking the set of candidate entities, wherein the ranking includes determining a rank of each primary entity in the set of candidate entities relative to both the primary entities and the related entities in the set of candidate entities, and determining a rank of each related entity in the set of candidate entities relative to both the primary entities and the related entities in the set of candidate entities;

selecting a final set of entities from the set of candidate entities based on the ranking of the set of candidate entities, wherein the final set of entities is smaller than the candidate set of entities;

generating a supplement, to the article, comprising search results for each entity in the final set of entities.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the supplement further comprises each entity in the final set of entities.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15,

wherein the supplement is a first supplement generated at a first time;

wherein one or more of the steps of ranking the set of candidate entities, selecting the set of related entities, or selecting the set of primary entities are based at least partially upon a set of features;

wherein the steps further comprise performing the steps of claim 15 at a second time to generate a second supplement; and

wherein the second supplement differs from the first supplement as a result of a time-sensitive change to at least one feature in the set of features.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein one or more of the steps of ranking the set of candidate entities, selecting the set of related entities, or selecting the set of primary entities are based at least partially upon user-specific data, wherein the user-specific data includes at least one of a search history for the user or a browsing history for the user.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the steps further comprise causing a client to display the supplement to a user in association with a display of the article.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the steps further comprise causing a client to display the supplement to a user inline within a structured document comprising the article and the supplement, in response to a request from the client for the article.

21. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the supplement comprises, for each entity in the final set of entities, a set of federated search results, wherein each federated search result in the set of federated search results includes at least two sets of search results, the at least two sets pertaining to at least two different search repositories.

22. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein at least the step of generating a supplement to the article is performed dynamically, in response to a request for the supplement, wherein the request indicates the article.

23. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the steps further comprise identifying one or more entities of the primary entities or the related entities based on a user associated with the request.

24. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein generating the supplement comprises generating a different section for each particular entity in the final set of entities, each different section displaying federated search results obtained for the corresponding particular entity, wherein the federated search results displayed in a particular section comprises at least a first subsection comprising one or more document summaries of one or more documents returned by searching a repository of documents for the corresponding particular entity and a second subsection comprising one or more media items returned by searching a repository of media items for the same corresponding particular entity.

25. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein generating the supplement comprises identifying which of a plurality of different federated search templates to use for each particular entity in the final set of entities, and generating a federated search result within the supplement for each particular entity in the final set of entities, based on which of the plurality of different federated search templates was identified for the particular entity.

26. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15,

wherein selecting the final set of entities further comprises determining whether search results for each candidate entities meets constraints associated with one or more search results templates;

wherein the constraints for each particular template of the one or more search results templates at least indicate minimum numbers of high-quality search results that must be returned for an entity, from each of a plurality of different search verticals, in order for search results for that entity to be formatted according to the particular template;

wherein the search results in the supplement are formatted according to at least one matching template from the one or more search results templates.

27. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the supplement comprises a plurality of tabs, each of the tabs configured to swap into view a different section, of a plurality of sections, that corresponds to the tab, each of the plurality of sections corresponding to a different entity in the final set of entities, each of the tabs comprising a label identifying the different entity that corresponds to the different section, each of the plurality of sections comprising search results for the corresponding different entity.

28. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein selecting the set of related entities further comprises, for each primary entity in the set of primary entities, searching for co-occurring related entities that co-occur with the primary entity in entries within:

a corpus of articles and a repository of human-entered relationship data.

29. A method comprising:

extracting a set of constituent entities from an article;

wherein extracting the set of constituent entities comprises extracting entities using both a dictionary-based lookup and a grammar-based recognition algorithm;

selecting a set of primary entities, each primary entity in the set of primary entities originating from the set of constituent entities;

wherein selecting the set of primary entities comprises ranking the set of constituent entities based at least on the frequency with which they occur within the article;

based on the set of primary entities, selecting a set of related entities;

wherein selecting the set of related entities comprises;

for each entity in the set of primary entities, searching for co-occurring related entities in entries within one or more of;

a repository of search query logs or a corpus of articles;

wherein selecting the set of related entities further comprises;

for each entity in the set of primary entities, selecting one or more related entities based at least on said searching and a ranking process based on co-occurrence frequencies;

forming a set of candidate entities that includes both primary entities from the set of primary entities and related entities from the set of related entities;

ranking the set of candidate entities, wherein the ranking includes determining a rank of each primary entity in the set of candidate entities relative to both the primary entities and the related entities in the set of candidate entities, and determining a rank of each related entity in the set of candidate entities relative to both the primary entities and the related entities in the set of candidate entities;

selecting a final set of entities from the set of candidate entities based on the ranking of the set of candidate entities, wherein the final set of entities is smaller than the candidate set of entities;

wherein selecting the final set of entities is based on at least;

a ranking function applied to each entity in the set of candidate entities and determining that search results for each entity in the final set of entities meet predefined criteria, wherein the predefined criteria include at least one of;

a measure of the quality of the search results, and a count of hits in a subset of the search results, the subset pertaining to a specific search vertical;

generating a supplement, to the article, comprising search results for each entity in the final set of entities;

wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

30. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more computing devices, cause performance of steps of:

extracting a set of constituent entities from an article;

wherein extracting the set of constituent entities comprises extracting entities using both a dictionary-based lookup and a grammar-based recognition algorithm;

selecting a set of primary entities, each primary entity in the set of primary entities originating from the set of constituent entities;

wherein selecting the set of primary entities comprises ranking the set of constituent entities based at least on the frequency with which they occur within the article;

based on the set of primary entities, selecting a set of related entities;

wherein selecting the set of related entities comprises;

for each entity in the set of primary entities, searching for co-occurring related entities in entries within one or more of;

a repository of search query logs or a corpus of articles;

wherein selecting the set of related entities further comprises;

for each entity in the set of primary entities, selecting one or more related entities based at least on said searching and a ranking process based on co-occurrence frequencies;

forming a set of candidate entities that includes both primary entities from the set of primary entities and related entities from the set of related entities;

ranking the set of candidate entities, wherein the ranking includes determining a rank of each primary entity in the set of candidate entities relative to both the primary entities and the related entities in the set of candidate entities, and determining a rank of each related entity in the set of candidate entities relative to both the primary entities and the related entities in the set of candidate entities;

selecting a final set of entities from the set of candidate entities based on the ranking of the set of candidate entities, wherein the final set of entities is smaller than the candidate set of entities;

wherein selecting the final set of entities is based on at least;

a ranking function applied to each entity in the set of candidate entities and determining that search results for each entity in the final set of entities meet predefined criteria, wherein the predefined criteria include at least one of;

a measure of the quality of the search results, and a count of hits in a subset of the search results, the subset pertaining to a specific search vertical;

generating a supplement, to the article, comprising search results for each entity in the final set of entities.

31. A method comprising:

receiving a request for an article of content;

providing a supplemented article in response to the request;

wherein the provided supplemented article comprises;

the content of the requested article;

a supplement that includes two or more sections, each of the two or more sections corresponding to a different entity of a plurality of entities, wherein each of the plurality of entities is selected based at least in part upon the content;

wherein the plurality of entities includes at least a first entity that was extracted from the content of the article;

wherein the plurality of entities further includes at least a second entity selected from a set of related entities, not found in the content of the article, that are related to constituent entities extracted from the content of the article;

wherein the supplement comprises a plurality of tabs, each of the tabs configured to swap into view a different section, of the two or more sections, that corresponds to the tab, each of the tabs comprising a label identifying the different entity that corresponds to the different section;

wherein each particular section of the two or more sections displays multiple search results obtained from one or more searches for the entity, of the plurality of entities, that corresponds to the particular section;

wherein the multiple search results for at least two of the two or more sections are arranged according to different search results templates, the different search results template used for a given section reflecting which types of search results are displayed in the given section;

wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

32. The method of claim 31,

wherein the different search results templates are associated with constraints that indicate which entities are shown with which search results;

wherein the constraints for each of the different search results templates at least indicate minimum numbers of high-quality search results must be returned from each of a plurality of different search verticals;

wherein the plurality of entities are selected, in part, based upon search results for each particular entity of the plurality of entities meeting the constraints for at least one of the different search results templates.