Sharing search engine relevance data

• US 8,898,152 B1
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Issued: 11/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Ie, Eugene, Wang, Xuefu, Clancy, Daniel J.
• Primary Examiner(s): TRUONG, CAM Y T
• Application Number:
  US13/617,688
• Time in Patent Office: 802 Days
• Field of Search: 707/723, 707/748
• US Class Current: 707/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

In general, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products for providing a query to a search engine for searching a corpus of documents. A plurality of result documents are received from the search engine, each result document associated with a ranking. For a first document in the plurality, the following is performed. First, a second document in a second corpus is identified as containing content that identifies the same physical object as the first document. The second document was included in a plurality of result documents responsive to a second query of the second corpus, similar to the first query. Second, a new ranking is determined for the first document based on its ranking and relevance data associated with the second document. The relevance data is indicative of the second document'"'"'s popularity as a result for the second query.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

identifying, by a computing system, a particular search result that was determined, along with a plurality of first search results, to be responsive to a first query, wherein the particular search result corresponds to a particular result document and each first search result of the first search results corresponds to a respective first result document, wherein the particular result document is a particular web page and the particular search result is configured to provide navigation to the particular web page upon user selection of the particular search result from among a presentation of multiple search results;

identifying, by the computing system, a second result document that is associated with the particular result document due to the second result document including content that identifies an object that is also identified by content included in the particular result document, wherein a second search result corresponds to the second result document;

identifying, by the computing system, second relevance data that indicates a popularity of the second search result as a selection by a second population of users as a result for a second query that is identical to the first query or similar to the first query; and

determining, by the computing system, a score for the particular search result based on (i) first relevance data that indicates a popularity of the particular search result as a selection by a first population of users as a result for the first query, and (ii) the second relevance data that indicates the popularity of the second search result as the selection by the second population of users as the result for the second query.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

determining the score for the particular search result includes weighing the first relevance data and the second relevance data; and

the weighing favors the first relevance data as selections of the particular search result as a result for the first query increase with respect to selections of the second search result as a result for the second query.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the content included in the second result document identifies the object with a unique identifier and the content included in the particular result document identifies the object with the unique identifier.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the object is a book; and

the content included in the second result document identifies the object with an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) and the content included in the particular result document identifies the object with the ISBN.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the second query is similar to the first query based on the second query and the first query including an identical term.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising providing, by the computing system, the particular search result and each of the first search results for display by a remote computing device;

wherein the particular search result and each of the first search results are arranged for display by the remote computing device according to the score for the particular search result and a score for each first search result of the first search results.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the first query was specified by user input at the remote computing device.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the second relevance data indicates a number of selections of the second search result by the second population of users as the result for the second query.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the particular search result and the plurality of first search results were determined to be responsive to the first query as a result of a search by a first search engine of a first corpus of result documents; and

the second search result was determined to be responsive to the second query as a result of a search by a second search engine that is different than the first search engine of a second corpus of result documents that is different than the first corpus of result documents.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the second result document is a second web page; and

the second search result is configured to provide navigation to the second web page upon user selection of the second search result from among a presentation of a plurality of search results.

10. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage devices comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of operations comprising:

identifying, by a computing system, a particular search result that was determined, along with a plurality of first search results, to be responsive to a first query, wherein the particular search result corresponds to a particular result document and each first search result of the first search results corresponds to a respective first result document, wherein the particular result document is a particular web page and the particular search result is configured to provide navigation to the particular web page upon user selection of the particular search result from among a presentation of multiple search results;

identifying, by the computing system, a second result document that is associated with the particular result document due to the second result document including content that identifies an object that is also identified by content included in the particular result document, wherein a second search result corresponds to the second result document;

identifying, by the computing system, second relevance data that indicates a popularity of the second search result as a selection by a second population of users as a result for a second query that is identical to the first query or similar to the first query; and

determining, by the computing system, a score for the particular search result based on (i) first relevance data that indicates a popularity of the particular search result as a selection by a first population of users as a result for the first query, and (ii) the second relevance data that indicates the popularity of the second search result as the selection by the second population of users as the result for the second query.

11. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage devices of claim 10, wherein:

determining the score for the particular search result includes weighing the first relevance data and the second relevance data; and

the weighing favors the first relevance data as selections of the particular search result as a result for the first query increase with respect to selections of the second search result as a result for the second query.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage devices of claim 10, wherein the content included in the second result document identifies the object with a unique identifier and the content included in the particular result document identifies the object with the unique identifier.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage devices of claim 10, wherein:

the object is a book; and

the content included in the second result document identifies the object with an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) and the content included in the particular result document identifies the object with the ISBN.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage devices of claim 10, wherein the second query is similar to the first query based on the second query and the first query including an identical term.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage devices of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise providing, by the computing system, the particular search result and each first search result of the first search results for display by a remote computing device;

wherein the particular search result and each of the first search results are arranged for display by the remote computing device according to the score for the particular search result and a score for each of the first search results.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage devices of claim 15, wherein the first query was specified by user input at the remote computing device.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage devices of claim 10, wherein the second relevance data indicates a number of selections of the second search result by the second population of users as the result for the second query.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage devices of claim 10, wherein:

the particular search result and the plurality of first search results were determined to be responsive to the first query as a result of a search by a first search engine of a first corpus of result documents; and

the second search result was determined to be responsive to the second query as a result of a search by a second search engine that is different than the first search engine of a second corpus of result documents that is different than the first corpus of result documents.