Query rewriting with entity detection

• US 8,805,867 B2
• Filed: 05/24/2013
• Issued: 08/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Zhou, Hong, Bharat, Krishna, Schmitt, Michael, Curtiss, Michael, Mayer, Marissa
• Primary Examiner(s): Corrielus, Jean M
• Application Number:
  US13/902,448
• Publication Number:
  US 20130262499A1
• Time in Patent Office: 445 Days
• Field of Search: 707/768, 707/737, 707/752, 707/765, 707/723, 707/759
• US Class Current: 707/768
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90335 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A system receives a search query, determines whether the received search query includes an entity name, and determines whether the entity name is associated with a common word or phrase. When the entity name is associated with a common word or phrase, the system generates a link to a rewritten query, performs a search based on the received search query to obtain first search results, and provides the first search results and the link to the rewritten query. When the entity name is not associated with a common word or phrase, the system rewrites the received search query to include a restrict identifier associated with the entity name, generates a link to the received search query, performs a search based on the rewritten search query to obtain second search results, and provides the second search results and the link to the received search query.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by one or more devices, a first search query that includes a particular search query term;

determining, by the one or more devices, that the particular search query term corresponds to one of a plurality of words or phrases stored in a data structure;

modifying, by the one or more devices, the first search query to obtain a second search query,

the second search query being different than the first search query, and

the second search query including information that restricts a search, performed based on the second search query, to a particular domain;

causing, by the one or more devices, a search to be performed based on the first search query to obtain search results;

obtaining, by the one or more devices, the search results after the search has been performed; and

providing, by the one or more devices, the search results and a link to the second search query.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting selection of the link to the second search query;

causing another search to be performed based on the second search query to obtain other search results; and

obtaining the other search results after the other search has been performed.

3. The method of claim 1, where the plurality of words or phrases corresponds to a plurality of common words or phrases.

4. The method of claim 1, where determining that the particular search query term corresponds to one of the plurality of words or phrases includes:

comparing the particular search query term to a dictionary of words and phrases.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing a corpus of documents; and

identifying words or phrases that occur, in the corpus of document, more than a threshold amount of times.

6. The method of claim 5, where determining that the particular search query term corresponds to one of the plurality of words or phrases includes:

comparing the particular search query term to the words or phrases that occur more than the threshold amount of times.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining a plurality of terms from a plurality of sources; and

identifying a domain associated with each term of the plurality of terms,

where the particular domain corresponds to a domain associated with one of the plurality of terms.

8. The method of claim 7, where the plurality of sources includes at least one of:

one or more online directories,

one or more group postings, or

a corpus of documents.

9. A system comprising:

one or more devices to;

receive a first search query that includes a particular search query term;

determine that the particular search query term corresponds to one of a plurality of words or phrases stored in a data structure;

modify the first search query to obtain a second search query,

the second search query being different than the first search query, and

the second search query including information that restricts a search, performed based on the second search query, to a particular domain;

cause a search to be performed based on the first search query to obtain search results;

obtain the search results after the search has been performed; and

provide the search results and a link to the second search query.

10. The system of claim 9, where the one or more devices are further to:

analyze a corpus of documents; and

identify words or phrases that occur, in the corpus of document, more than a threshold amount of times,

where the plurality of words or phrases includes the words or phrases that occur more than the threshold amount of times.

11. The system of claim 10, where, when determining that the particular search query term corresponds to one of the plurality of words or phrases, the one or more devices are to:

compare the particular search query term to the words or phrases that occur more than the threshold amount of times.

12. The system of claim 9, where, when determining that the particular search query term corresponds to one of the plurality of words or phrases, the one or more devices are to:

compare the particular search query term to a dictionary of words and phrases.

13. The system of claim 9, where the one or more devices are further to:

detect selection of the link to the second search query;

cause another search to be performed based on the second search query to obtain other search results;

obtain the other search results after the other search has been performed; and

provide the other search results.

14. The system of claim 9, where the one or more devices are further to:

obtain a plurality of terms; and

identify a domain associated with each term of the plurality of terms,

where the particular domain corresponds to a domain associated with one of the plurality of terms.

15. The system of claim 14, where the plurality of terms is obtained from at least one of:

one or more online directories,

one or more group postings, or

a corpus of documents.

16. The system of claim 9, where the particular domain corresponds to one of:

a domain associated with a particular news sources,

a domain associated with a particular store,

a domain associated with a particular brand,

a domain associated with a particular manufacturer,

a domain associated with a particular product category,

a domain associated with a particular product model,

a domain associated with a particular location,

a domain associated with a particular individual, or

a domain associated with a particular organization.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, the instructions comprising:

one or more instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to receive a first search query that includes a particular search query term;

one or more instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to determine that the particular search query term corresponds to one of a plurality of words or phrases stored in a data structure;

one or more instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to modify the first search query to obtain a second search query,

the second search query being different than the first search query, and

the second search query including information that restricts a search, performed based on the second search query, to a particular domain;

one or more instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to cause a search to be performed based on the first search query to obtain search results;

one or more instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to obtain the search results after the search has been performed; and

one or more instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to provide the search results and a link to the second search query.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, the instructions further comprising:

one or more instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to detect selection of the link to the second search query;

one or more instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to cause another search to be performed based on the second search query to obtain other search results;

one or more instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to obtain the other search results after the other search has been performed; and

one or more instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to provide the other search results.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, where the one or more instructions to determine that the particular search query term corresponds to one of the plurality of words or phrases include at least one of:

one or more instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to compare the particular search query term to words or phrases that occur more than a threshold amount in a corpus of documents;

or

one or more instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to compare the particular search query term to a dictionary of words and phrases.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, where the particular domain corresponds to one of:

a domain associated with a particular news sources,

a domain associated with a particular store,

a domain associated with a particular brand,

a domain associated with a particular manufacturer,

a domain associated with a particular product category,

a domain associated with a particular product model,

a domain associated with a particular location,

a domain associated with a particular individual, or

a domain associated with a particular organization.