Resource locator suggestions from input character sequence

• US 8,745,051 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2008
• Issued: 06/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Wang, Yonggang, Hong, Feng, Xu, Wei, Tang, Xiliu, Ou, Henry, Yang, Bo, Zhang, Lei, Yang, Runhua, Wu, Jun, Yao, Baogang
• Primary Examiner(s): Lewis, Cheryl
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hoffler, Raheem
• Application Number:
  US12/211,712
• Publication Number:
  US 20100005086A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,086 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/018 Input/output arrangements for oriental characters
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0237 using prediction or retrieval techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, in which an input method editor receives Roman character inputs, identifies keywords for candidate sets of a non-Roman character, and identifies an associated resource location. Upon identifying an associated resource location, associating the resource location with the candidate set of non-Roman characters.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving Roman character inputs representing at least one word of a uniform resource locator for a desired webpage,

using the Roman character inputs to determine candidate sets of non-Roman characters;

determining candidate sets of uniform resource locators, each candidate set of uniform resource locators associated with a corresponding candidate set of non-Roman characters, wherein determining candidate sets of uniform resource locators includes, for each candidate set of non-Roman characters;

determining sets of keywords that have the candidate set of non-Roman characters as a prefix by conducting a prefix keyword search using the determined candidate set of non-Roman characters as the prefix to expand the prefix into the determined sets of keywords such that at least one set of the determined sets of keywords includes a greater number of words than the prefix,

for each determined set of keywords, conducting another search to determine a set of associated uniform resource locators, and

associating the candidate set of uniform resource locators with the candidate set of non-Roman characters; and

providing the candidate sets of uniform resource locators and candidate sets of non-Roman characters to the user interface for display, wherein each candidate set of uniform resource locators is displayed in association with a respective corresponding candidate set of non-Roman characters.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection of one of the candidate sets of non-Roman characters; and

in response to receiving the selection, displaying the candidate set of uniform resource locators associated with the candidate set of non-Roman characters.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-Roman characters are Hanzi characters.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining candidate sets of uniform resource locators further includes, for each of the candidate sets of non-Roman characters:

searching a prefix table with the candidate set of non-Roman characters to determine keywords, the prefix table mapping keywords to prefixes in non-Roman characters;

searching a keyword table with the determined sets of keywords to determine uniform resource locators, the keyword table mapping the sets of keywords to uniform resource locators; and

associating the determined uniform resource locators with the candidate set of non-Roman characters.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein:

searching a keyword table with the determined sets of keywords to determine uniform resource locators comprises, for each determined set of keywords;

determining uniform resource locators mapped to the determined set of keywords;

determining a ranking of each uniform resource locator mapped to the determined set of keywords; and

selecting the uniform resource locator with the highest ranking; and

associating the determined uniform resource locator with the candidate set of non-Roman characters comprises associating only the highest ranked uniform resource locator for each set of keywords with the candidate set of non-Roman characters.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

tracking a number of times each of the uniform resource locator in each of the candidate sets of uniform resource locators is selected; and

adjusting the ranking of each uniform resource locator based on the number of times each of the uniform resource locators is selected.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising, for each candidate set of uniform resource locators:

tracking a number of times each of the uniform resource locators in each of the candidate sets of uniform resource locators is selected; and

ranking the uniform resource locators in each of the candidate sets of uniform resource locators relative to the other uniform resource locators in the candidate sets of uniform resource locators based on the number of times each of the uniform resource locators has been selected.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying each of the candidate sets of non-Roman characters on the user interface;

receiving a selection of one of the candidate sets of non-Roman characters; and

displaying only the candidate set of uniform resource locators and sets of keywords associated with the selected one of the candidate sets of non-Roman characters.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the candidate sets of uniform resource locators and the candidate sets of non-Roman characters to a user interface for display comprises transmitting the candidate sets of uniform resource locators and the candidate sets of non-Roman characters to a user device that includes the user interface.

10. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving Roman character inputs representing at least one word of a uniform resource locator for a desired webpage;

using the Roman character inputs to determine candidate sets of non-Roman characters;

conducting a search to determine keywords from queries stored in a query log using the candidate sets of non-Roman characters as prefixes, each determined keyword including a corresponding prefix;

generating a mapping of the prefixes to the determined keywords;

for each of the determined keywords, conducting another search to determine associated uniform resource locators;

generating a mapping of the determined keywords to the uniform resource locators, each uniform resource locator being a locator that was selected at least a threshold number of times in response to one or more stored queries that included the keywords to which the uniform resource locator is mapped; and

providing the mapping of prefixes to keywords and the mapping of the keywords to uniform resource locators to a client device for use in resolving uniform resource locator addresses at the client device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein generating a mapping of prefixes to keywords comprises generating a prefix tree for the keywords, each node in the prefix tree corresponding to a keyword or a prefix common to multiple keywords.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein each keyword comprises one or more Hanzi characters.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein generating a mapping of the keywords to uniform resource locators comprises ranking each uniform resource locator for each keyword relative to the other uniform resource locator for the keyword based on the number of times each of the uniform resource locators has been selected.

14. A computer program product tangibly embedded in a machine-readable storage device, the computer program product including instructions that, when read by a machine, cause a data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving Roman character inputs representing at least one word of a uniform resource locator for a desired webpage;

using the Roman character inputs to determine candidate sets of non-Roman characters;

determining candidate sets of uniform resource locators, each candidate set of uniform resource locators associated with a corresponding candidate set of non-Roman characters, wherein determining candidate sets of uniform resource locators includes, for each candidate set of non-Roman characters;

determining sets of keywords that have the candidate set of non-Roman characters as a prefix by conducting a prefix keyword search using the determined candidate set of non-Roman characters as the prefix to expand the prefix into the determined sets of keywords such that at least one set of the determined sets of keywords includes a greater number of words than the prefix,

for each determined set of keywords, conducting another search to determine a set of associated uniform resource locators, and

associating the candidate set of uniform resource locators with the candidate set of non-Roman characters; and

providing the candidate sets of uniform resource locators and candidate sets of non-Roman characters to the user interface for display, wherein each candidate set of uniform resource locators is displayed in association with a respective corresponding candidate set of non-Roman characters.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, the operations further comprising:

receiving a selection of one of the candidate sets of non-Roman characters; and

in response to receiving the selection, displaying the candidate set of uniform resource locators associated with the candidate set of non-Roman characters.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the non-Roman characters are Hanzi characters.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein determining candidate sets of uniform resource locators further comprises, for each of the candidate sets of non-Roman characters:

searching a prefix table with the candidate set of non-Roman characters to determine keywords, the prefix table mapping keywords to prefixes in non-Roman characters;

searching a keyword table with the determined sets of keywords to determine uniform resource locators, the keyword table mapping sets of keywords to uniform resource locators; and

associating the determined uniform resource locators with the candidate set of non-Roman characters.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein:

searching a keyword table with the determined sets of keywords to determine uniform resource locators comprises, for each identified keyword;

determining uniform resource locators mapped to the determined set of keywords;

determining a ranking of each uniform resource locator mapped to the determined set of keywords; and

selecting the uniform resource locator with the highest ranking; and

associating the identified uniform resource locators with the candidate set of non-Roman characters comprises associating only the highest ranked uniform resource locator for each determined set of keywords with the candidate set of non-Roman characters.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, the operations further comprising:

tracking a number of times each of the uniform resource locators in each of the candidate sets of uniform resource locators is selected; and

adjusting the ranking of each uniform resource locator based on the number of times each of the uniform resource locators is selected.