Personalizing search results

• US 8,977,630 B1
• Filed: 09/16/2013
• Issued: 03/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Tucker, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Wilson
• Application Number:
  US14/027,692
• Time in Patent Office: 540 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/748
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

A system receives a search query from a user and performs a search of a corpus of documents, based on the search query, to form a ranked set of search results. The system re-ranks the set of search results based on preferences of the user, or a group of users, and provides the re-ranked search results to the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying, by at least one of one or more server devices, a first set of documents associated with a user,

documents, in the first set of documents, being assigned weights that reflect a relative quantification of an interest of the user in the documents in the first set of documents;

receiving, by at least one of the one or more server devices, a search query from a client device associated with the user;

identifying, by at least one of the one or more server devices and based on the search query, a second set of documents,

each document from the second set of documents having a respective score;

determining, by at least one of the one or more server devices, that a particular document, from the second set of documents, matches or links to one of the documents in the first set of documents;

adjusting, by at least one of the one or more server devices, the respective score of the particular document, to form an adjusted score, based on the weight assigned to the one of the documents in the first set of documents;

forming, by at least one of the one or more server devices, a list of documents in which documents from the second set of documents are ranked based on the respective scores,

the particular document being ranked in the list based on the adjusted score; and

providing, by at least one of the one or more server devices, the list of documents to the client device.

2. The method of claim 1, where adjusting the respective score of the particular document includes:

adding the weight assigned to the one of the documents in the first set of documents to the respective score of the particular document to form the adjusted score.

3. The method of claim 1, where adjusting the respective score of the particular document includes:

lowering, based on the weight assigned to the one of the documents in the first set of documents, the respective score of the particular document.

4. The method of claim 1, where identifying the first set of documents includes:

identifying the first set of documents based on a query history associated with the user.

5. The method of claim 1, where identifying the first set of documents includes:

receiving, from the user, information identifying the first set of documents.

6. The method of claim 1, where identifying the second set of documents includes:

identifying the second set of documents further based on a link-based document algorithm.

7. The method of claim 1, where identifying the first set of documents includes:

identifying the first set of documents based on a first estimation of quality of each document included in a corpus of documents,

the first estimation of quality of each document being associated with a first community of users,

the first community of users including the user; and

identifying the second set of documents based on a second estimation of quality of each document included in the corpus of documents,

the second estimation of quality of each document being associated with a second community of users,

the first community of users comprising a sub-community of the second community of users.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning the adjusted score to one or more sites associated with the particular document.

9. The method of claim 8, where assigning the adjusted score to the one or more sites includes:

assigning the adjusted score to a group of documents hosted by the one or more sites,

the group of documents including the particular document, and

the group of documents being at least one of;

associated with a particular organization,

associated with a particular domain name,

associated with a particular host name,

created by a particular person, or

created by a particular group of persons.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning the adjusted score to a group of documents associated with the particular document,

the group of documents being at least one of;

associated with a particular topic,

written in a particular language,

written in a particular writing style, or

associated with a particular location.

11. A system comprising:

one or more server devices configured to;

identify a first set of documents associated with a user,

documents, in the first set of documents, being assigned weights that reflect a relative quantification of an interest of the user in the documents in the first set of documents;

receive a search query from a client device associated with the user;

identify, based on the search query, a second set of documents,

each document from the second set of documents having a respective score;

determine that a particular document, from the second set of documents, matches or links to one of the documents in the first set of documents;

adjust the respective score of the particular document, to form an adjusted score, based on the weight assigned to the one of the documents in the first set of documents;

form a list of documents in which documents in the second set of documents are ranked based on the respective scores,

the particular document being ranked in the list based on the adjusted score; and

provide the list of documents to the client device.

12. The system of claim 11, where, when adjusting the respective score of the particular document, the one or more server devices are configured to:

add the weight assigned to the one of the documents in the first set of documents to the respective score of the particular document to form the adjusted score.

13. The system of claim 11, where, when adjusting the respective score of the particular document, the one or more server devices are configured to:

lower, based on the weight assigned to the one of the documents in the first set of documents, the respective score of the particular document.

14. The system of claim 11, where, when identifying the first set of documents, the one or more server devices are configured to:

identify the first set of documents based on a query history associated with the user.

15. The system of claim 11, where, when identifying the first set of documents, the one or more server devices are configured to:

receive, from the user, information identifying the first set of documents.

16. The system of claim 11, where, when identifying the second set of documents, the one or more server devices are configured to:

identify the second set of documents further based on a link-based document algorithm.

17. The system of claim 11, where, when identifying the first set of documents, the one or more server devices are configured to:

identify the first set of documents based on a first estimation of quality of each document included in a corpus of documents,

the first estimation of quality of each document being associated with a first community of users,

the first community of users including the user; and

identify the second set of documents based on a second estimation of quality of each document included in the corpus of documents,

the second estimation of quality of each document being associated with a second community of users,

the first community of users comprising a sub-community of the second community of users.

18. The system of claim 11, where the one or more server devices are further configured to:

assign the adjusted score to one or more sites associated with the particular document.

19. The system of claim 18, where, when assigning the adjusted score to the one or more sites, the one or more server devices are configured to:

assign the adjusted score to a group of documents hosted by the one or more sites,

the group of documents including the particular document, and

the group of documents being at least one of;

associated with a particular organization,

associated with a particular domain name,

associated with a particular host name,

created by a particular person, or

created by a particular group of persons.

20. The system of claim 11, where the one or more server devices are further configured to:

assign the adjusted score to a group of documents associated with the particular document,

the group of documents being at least one of;

associated with a particular topic,

written in a particular language,

written in a particular writing style, or

associated with a particular location.