Variable personalization of search results in a search engine

• US 8,874,567 B2
• Filed: 05/04/2012
• Issued: 10/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Haveliwala, Taher H., Jeh, Glen M., Kamvar, Sepandar D.
• Primary Examiner(s): FILIPCZYK, MARCIN R
• Application Number:
  US13/464,083
• Publication Number:
  US 20120221568A1
• Time in Patent Office: 907 Days
• Field of Search: 707/708, 707/710, 707/733, 707/734, 707/738, 707/749, 707/999.003, 707/999.006, 707/999.101, 707/707, 707/726, 707/750
• US Class Current: 707/726
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access

Abstract

A search engine provides personalized rankings of search results. A user interest profile identifies topics of interest to a user. Each topic is associated with one or more sites, and a boost value, which can be used to augment an information retrieval score of any document from the site. Search results from any search are provided to the user, with a variable control of the ranking of the results. The results can be ranked by their unboosted information retrieval score, thus reflecting no personalization, or by their fully or partially boosted information retrieval scores. This allows the user to selectively control how their interests affect the ranking of the documents.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a search query from a user having a user interest profile including one or more topics;

receiving first search results responsive to the search query and associated with respective first ranking scores, wherein the first ranking scores are based on a first degree of influence of a topic of the user interest profile on an initial ranking of the first search results;

determining second search results responsive to the search query and associated with second ranking scores, wherein the second ranking scores are based on a different second degree of influence of the topic of the user interest profile on the initial ranking of the second search results, wherein the second ranking scores are different than the first ranking scores, including;

determining an initial information retrieval (IR) score for a second search result of the second search results, wherein the second search result identifies a resource on a site,

determining that the site is associated with a topic-specific boost value for the topic, wherein the topic-specific boost value is based on a number of links to the site from one or more other sites that have been determined to be relevant to the topic, and

determining a boosted IR score for the second search result using the topic-specific boost value, wherein the second ranking scores include the boosted IR score for the second search result; and

providing, in response to the search query;

a first representation of a first ranking of the first search results based on the first ranking scores, the first representation of the first ranking including respective first search result identifiers for the first search results,

a second representation of a second ranking of the second search results based on the second ranking scores, the second representation of the second ranking including respective second search result identifiers for the second search results, and

a search results page that presents the first search results according to the first ranking using the first representation of the first ranking, wherein, upon user selection of a user control element corresponding to the second degree of influence, the search results page presents the second search results according to the second ranking using the second representation of the second ranking without sending a request to a search engine to recompute the second ranking scores.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the search results page includes a mapping between search results and respective search result identifiers for the first search results and the second search results, and wherein presenting the first search results according to the first ranking includes obtaining, from the mapping, search results referenced by search result identifiers occurring in the first representation of the first ranking.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the second ranking scores are based on a maximum degree of influence of the topic of the user interest profile on the initial ranking of the second search results.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first ranking scores are based on a minimum degree of influence of the topic of the user interest profile on the initial ranking of the first search results.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining third search results responsive to the search query and associated with third ranking scores, wherein the third ranking scores are based on interpolated ranking scores between the first ranking scores and the second ranking scores, wherein the third ranking scores correspond to a different third degree of influence of the topic of the user interest profile on an initial ranking of the third search results; and

providing the third search results in response to the search query, wherein upon user selection of the control element corresponding to the third degree of influence, the search results page presents the third search results according to a third ranking based on the third ranking scores.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first representation of the first ranking comprises a vector of the first search result identifiers, and wherein the second representation of the second ranking comprises a vector of the second search result identifiers.

7. A computer-readable storage device encoded with a computer program comprising instructions that, when executed, operate to cause a computer to perform operations comprising:

receiving a search query from a user having a user interest profile including one or more topics;

receiving first search results responsive to the search query and associated with respective first ranking scores, wherein the first ranking scores are based on a first degree of influence of a topic of the user interest profile on an initial ranking of the first search results;

determining second search results responsive to the search query and associated with second ranking scores, wherein the second ranking scores are based on a different second degree of influence of the topic of the user interest profile on the initial ranking of the second search results, wherein the second ranking scores are different than the first ranking scores, including;

determining an initial information retrieval (IR) score for a second search result of the second search results, wherein the second search result identifies a resource on a site,

determining that the site is associated with a topic-specific boost value for the topic, wherein the topic-specific boost value is based on a number of links to the site from one or more other sites that have been determined to be relevant to the topic, and

determining a boosted IR score for the second search result using the topic-specific boost value, wherein the second ranking scores include the boosted IR score for the second search result; and

providing, in response to the search query;

a first representation of a first ranking of the first search results based on the first ranking scores, the first representation of the first ranking including respective first search result identifiers for the first search results,

a second representation of a second ranking of the second search results based on the second ranking scores, the second representation of the second ranking including respective second search result identifiers for the second search results, and

a search results page that presents the first search results according to the first ranking using the first representation of the first ranking, wherein, upon user selection of a user control element corresponding to the second degree of influence, the search results page presents the second search results according to the second ranking using the second representation of the second ranking without sending a request to a search engine to recompute the second ranking scores.

8. The computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein the search results page includes a mapping between search results and respective search result identifiers for the first search results and the second search results, and wherein presenting the the first search results according to the first ranking includes obtaining, from the mapping, search results referenced by search result identifiers occurring in the first representation of the first ranking.

9. The computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein the second ranking scores are based on a maximum degree of influence of the topic of the user interest profile on the initial ranking of the second search results.

10. The computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein the first ranking scores are based on a minimum degree of influence of the topic of the user interest profile on the initial ranking of the first search results.

11. The computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining third search results responsive to the search query and associated with third ranking scores, wherein the third ranking scores are based on interpolated ranking scores between the first ranking scores and the second ranking scores, wherein the third ranking scores correspond to a different third degree of influence of the topic of the user interest profile on an initial ranking of the third search results; and

providing the third search results in response to the search query, wherein upon user selection of the control element corresponding to the third degree of influence, the search results page presents the third search results according to a third ranking based on the third ranking scores.

12. The computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein the first representation of the first ranking comprises a vector of the first search result identifiers, and wherein the second representation of the second ranking comprises a vector of the second search result identifiers.

13. A system, comprising:

one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

receiving a search query from a user having a user interest profile including one or more topics;

receiving first search results responsive to the search query and associated with respective first ranking scores, wherein the first ranking scores are based on a first degree of influence of a topic of the user interest profile on the initial ranking of the first search results;

determining second search results responsive to the search query and associated with second ranking scores, wherein the second ranking scores are based on a different second degree of influence of the topic of the user interest profile on an initial ranking of the second search results, wherein the second ranking scores are different than the first ranking scores, including;

determining an initial information retrieval (IR) score for a second search result of the second search results, wherein the second search result identifies a resource on a site,

determining that the site is associated with a topic-specific boost value for the topic, wherein the tonic-specific boost value is based on a number of links to the site from one or more other sites that have been determined to be relevant to the topic, and

determining a boosted IR score for the second search result using the topic-specific boost value, wherein the second ranking scores include the boosted IR score for the second search result; and

providing, in response to the search;

a first representation of a first ranking of the first search results based on the first ranking scores, the first representation of the first ranking including respective first search result identifiers for the first search results,

a second representation of a second ranking of the second search results based on the second ranking scores, the second representation of the second ranking including respective second search result identifiers for the second search results, and

a search results page that presents the first search results according to the first ranking using the first representation of the first ranking, wherein, upon user selection of a user control element corresponding to the second degree of influence, the search results page presents the second search results according to the second ranking using the second representation of the second ranking without sending a request to a search engine to recompute the second ranking scores.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the search results page includes a mapping between search results and respective search result identifiers for the first search results and the second search results, and wherein presenting the first search results according to the first ranking includes obtaining, from the mapping, search results referenced by search result identifiers occurring in the first representation of the first ranking.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the second ranking scores are based on a maximum degree of influence of the topic of the user interest profile on the initial ranking of the second search results.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the first ranking scores are based on a minimum degree of influence of the topic of the user interest profile on the initial ranking of the first search results.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining third search results responsive to the search query and associated with third ranking scores, wherein the third ranking scores are based on interpolated ranking scores between the first ranking scores and the second ranking scores, wherein the third ranking scores correspond to a different third degree of influence of the topic of the user interest profile on an initial ranking of the third search results; and

providing the third search results in response to the search query, wherein upon user selection of the control element corresponding to the third degree of influence, the search results page presents the third search results according to a third ranking based on the third ranking scores.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the first representation of the first ranking comprises a vector of the first search result identifiers, and wherein the second representation of the second ranking comprises a vector of the second search result identifiers.