Implementation of a search for items

• US 8,880,547 B1
• Filed: 07/21/2009
• Issued: 11/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mills, Brent Robert, Parshall, Daniel R., Hotchkies, Blair L., Patrikios, Jason P., Jaye, Paul Daniel, Teodorescu, Dan Catalin, Pounds, Jennica Jane, Acosta, Luis Alejandro, Lichterman, David Aaron
• Primary Examiner(s): Leroux, Etienne
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Cindy
• Application Number:
  US12/506,301
• Time in Patent Office: 1,932 Days
• Field of Search: 707/767, 707/768
• US Class Current: 707/767
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3338 Query expansion
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments for generating search results when a search string fails to return results as entered. In a representative example, a failure of a first query generated from a search string to identify at least a predefined threshold number of items from among a plurality of items in a data store is detected in a computing device. A plurality of altered versions of the search string is generated in the computing device. A submission of a plurality of second queries to the data store is implemented, where each of the second queries corresponds to one of the altered versions of the search string. A presentation is generated to be rendered of at least two separate groups of items resulting from corresponding ones of the second queries.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

detecting when a first query generated from a search string in a computing device identifies less than a predefined threshold number of items from among a plurality of items in a data store, wherein the search string comprises a plurality of search terms;

generating, by a search engine, upon detection, a plurality of altered versions of the search string in the computing device that are restricted to containing a subset of the plurality of search terms of the search string, by performing at least one of the following;

removing at least one search term from the search string;

eliminating a duplicate search term from the search string;

or

recognizing at least two terms in the search string as a literal phrase to be employed in a respective one of a plurality of second queries;

implementing, in the computing device, a submission of the plurality of second queries to the data store, each of the second queries corresponding to a respective one of the altered versions of the search string;

generating, in the computing device, a presentation of at least two separate groups of the items resulting from a corresponding at least two of the second queries to be rendered;

facilitating a selection of one of the at least two separate groups of the items in the presentation to be rendered apart from other groups of items; and

sending the presentation to a client to be rendered by the client.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein for each of the at least two separate groups of the items, the method further comprises associating a total number of the items in the group with the presentation of the group of the items.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the search string is overly constrained, thereby resulting in a failure of the first query to identify the predefined threshold number of items from among the plurality of items in the data store.

4. A system, comprising:

a computing device; and

a search engine executed in the computing device, the search engine being configured to;

detect when a first query generated from a search string identifies less than a predefined threshold number of items from among a plurality of items stored in a data store accessible to the computing device, wherein the search string comprises a plurality of search terms;

generate, upon detection, a plurality of altered versions of the search string that are restricted to containing a subset of the plurality of search terms of the search string;

submit a plurality of second queries to the data store, each of the second queries corresponding to a respective one of the altered versions of the search string; and

generate a presentation of at least two separate groups of the items resulting from a corresponding at least two of the second queries to be rendered on a rendering device.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the search engine is further configured to:

detect when the first query generated from the search string identifies less than one of the items from among the plurality of items; and

generate at least a one of the altered versions of the search string based on removing the at least one search term of the search string.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the rendering device comprises one of a display device or a printer.

7. The system of claim 4, further comprising an application executed in the computing device configured to send the presentation to a client to be rendered by the client.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein the search engine is further configured to facilitate a selection of one of the at least two separate groups of the items in the presentation to be rendered apart from other groups of the items.

9. The system of claim 4, wherein the search engine generates the plurality of altered versions of the search string by removing at least one term from the search string.

10. The system of claim 4, wherein the search engine generates the plurality of altered versions of the search string by eliminating at least one duplicate term from the search string.

11. The system of claim 4, wherein the search engine generates the plurality of altered versions of the search string by recognizing at least two terms in the search string as a literal phrase to be employed in a respective one of the second queries.

12. The system of claim 4, wherein the search engine generates the plurality of altered versions of the search string by:

applying a weight to each of a plurality of terms in the search string based upon frequency data; and

eliminating at least one of the terms having a smallest weight from the search string.

13. The system of claim 4, wherein the search string is overly constrained, thereby resulting in identifying less than the predefined threshold number of items from among the plurality of items in the data store.

14. A method, comprising:

detecting when a first query generated from a search string in a computing device identifies less than a threshold number of items from among a plurality of items in a data store;

generating, upon detection, a plurality of altered versions of the search string in the computing device that are restricted to containing a subset of search terms of the search string;

implementing, in the computing device, a submission of a plurality of second queries to the data store, each of the second queries corresponding to a respective one of the altered versions of the search string; and

generating, in the computing device, a presentation of at least two separate groups of the items resulting from a corresponding at least two of the second queries to be rendered.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein detecting when the first query generated from the search string in the computing device identifies less than the threshold number of items from among the plurality of items in the data store further comprises detecting when the first query generated from the search string identifies less than one of the items from among the plurality of items.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising sending the presentation to a client to be rendered by the client.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising facilitating a selection of one of the at least two separate groups of the items in the presentation to be rendered apart from other groups of the items.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein generating the plurality of altered versions of the search string further comprises removing at least one term from the search string.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one term is removed from the search string from left to right.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein for each of the at least two separate groups of the items, the method further comprises associating a total number of the items in a respective one of the at least two groups with the presentation of the at least two groups of the items.

21. The method of claim 14, wherein generating the plurality of altered versions of the search string further comprises eliminating at least one duplicate term from the search string.

22. The method of claim 14, wherein generating the plurality of altered versions of the search string further comprises recognizing at least two terms in the search string as a literal phrase to be employed in a respective one of the second queries.

23. The method of claim 14, wherein generating the plurality of altered versions of the search string further comprises:

applying a weight to each of a plurality of terms in the search string based upon frequency data; and

eliminating at least one of the terms having a smallest weight from the search string.

24. The method of claim 14, wherein generating the plurality of altered versions of the search string further comprises automatically correcting a spelling of at least one of a plurality of terms in the search string.

25. The method of claim 14, wherein the search string is overly constrained, thereby resulting in identifying less than the threshold number of items from among the plurality of items in the data store.