Information-retrieval systems, methods, and software with content relevancy enhancements

• US 8,909,616 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2007
• Issued: 12/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GmbH (The Woodbridge Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Reuters Global Resources
• Inventors: Rosenoff, Douglas T., Crowhurst, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): LEWIS, CHERYL RENEA
• Application Number:
  US11/855,751
• Publication Number:
  US 20080071772A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,643 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/713, 707/708, 707/731
• US Class Current: 707/708
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

The present inventors devised, among other things, systems, methods, and software for enhancing the relevancy of content presented to users in response to queries in an online information retrieval system. One exemplary system refines a user input query by making suggestions of alternatives queries, classifying the query using language processing, or selecting one or more databases or search engines as targets for the refined query. A switchboard module converts the refined query, administers one or more searches, and collects search results from one or more search engines based on the refined query. And, a post-processor module refines the collected search results by, for example, modifying the order of the results, removing inappropriate or undesirable content from the results, and/or applying historical performance analysis.

Claims

1. An information retrieval system, the system comprising:

at least one database storing a plurality of documents; and

a server coupled to the at least one database, the server comprising;

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

receiving a query, the query including a first term, from a requesting application presented by a client access device, the requesting application having a plurality of subject areas, the query associated with a subject area of the plurality of subject areas;

selecting a taxonomy that is associated with the subject area of the query, the plurality of subject areas being related to different taxonomies;

refining the query based on the taxonomy selected to include a second term in the query; and

processing the query as refined against the at least one database to return a search result including at least one document to the client device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one database includes one or more of:

legal database, law-related database, financial database, scientific database, health-care database, corporate database, product database, website database, webpage database, public or private database, and combinations thereof.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the different taxonomies includes a legal taxonomy.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further include refining the search result in accordance with a multi-dimensional data structure that relates topics in a taxonomy of the different taxonomies to documents and associated relevance weighting factors.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the operations further comprise reordering the at least one document in the search result based on the relevance weighting factors of the multi-dimensional data structure.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein operations further comprise refining the query by including a broader topic based on the taxonomy selected.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise refining the query by including a selection of a particular database or a particular search engine based on the taxonomy selected.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise making the selection algorithmically based on the taxonomy selected and user input from the client access device.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise refining the query by correcting at least one of spelling, case and syntax of the first term in the query based on the taxonomy selected.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise refining the search result in accordance with a black list of documents, the black list indicating one or more documents to be redacted from the search result.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise refining the search result in accordance with a white list of documents, the white list indicating one or more documents to be added to or elevated in the search result.

12. A method of retrieving documents, the method comprising:

receiving by a server a query, the query including a first term, from a requesting application presented by a client access device, the requesting application having a plurality of subject areas, the query associated with a subject area of the plurality of subject areas;

selecting a taxonomy that is associated with the subject area of the query, the plurality of subject areas being related to different taxonomies;

refining the query based on the taxonomy selected to include a second term in the query;

processing the query as refined against at least one database storing documents to retrieve a search result including at least one document; and

transmitting the search result to the client access device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein refining the query includes selecting a particular database or a particular search engine based on the taxonomy selected.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the selection is made algorithmically based on the taxonomy selected and user input from the client access device.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising refining the search result before transmission to the client access device in accordance with a black list of documents, the black list indicating one or more documents to be redacted from the search result.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising refining the search result before transmission to the client access device in accordance with a white list of documents, the white list indicating one or more documents to be added to or elevated in the search result.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising refining the search result before transmission to the client access device in accordance with a multi-dimensional data structure that relates topics in the taxonomy selected to documents and associated relevance weighting factors.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein refining the search result includes reordering the at least one document in the search result based on the relevance weighting factors of the multi-dimensional data structure.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein refining the query includes correcting at least one of spelling, case and syntax of the first term in the query based on the taxonomy selected.

20. A server of an information retrieval system, the server comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations, the at least one processor comprising;

a preprocessor, wherein operations associated with the preprocessor include;

receiving a query by the server from a requesting application presented by a client access device, the query including a first term, the requesting application having a plurality of subject areas, the query associated with a subject area of the plurality of subject areas;

selecting a taxonomy that is associated with the subject area of the query, the plurality of subject areas being related to different taxonomies; and

refining the query based on the taxonomy selected to include a second term in the query;

a switchboard, wherein operations associated with the switchboard include retrieving a search result from at least one database in accordance with the query as refined, the search result including at least one document; and

a postprocessor, wherein operations associated with the postprocessor include refining the retrieved search result for transmission by the server to the client access device.

21. The server of claim 20, wherein operations associated with the preprocessor include refining the query by including a broader topic based on the taxonomy selected.

22. The server of claim 20, wherein operations associated with the preprocessor include refining the query by including a selection of a particular database or a particular search engine based on the taxonomy selected.

23. The server of claim 22, wherein operations associated with the preprocessor include making the selection algorithmically based on the taxonomy selected and user input from the client access device.

24. The server of claim 20, wherein operations associated with the preprocessor include refining the query by correcting at least one of spelling, case and syntax of the first term in the query based on the taxonomy selected.

25. The server of claim 20, wherein operations associated with the postprocessor include refining the search result in accordance with a multi-dimensional data structure that relates topics in the taxonomy selected to documents and associated relevance weighting factors.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein operations associated with the postprocessor include reordering the at least one document in the search result based on the relevance weighting factors of the multidimensional data structure.

27. The server of claim 20, wherein operations associated with the postprocessor include refining the search result in accordance with a black list of documents, the black list indicating one or more documents to be redacted from the search result.

28. The server of claim 20, wherein operations associated with the postprocessor include refining the search result in accordance with a white list of documents, the white list indicating one or more documents to be added to or elevated in the search result.