Web search with multi-language search input translation

• US 9,009,184 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2012
• Issued: 04/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Enpulz LLC
• Inventors: Bennett, James D.
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, THU NGUYET T
• Application Number:
  US13/664,243
• Publication Number:
  US 20130060748A1
• Time in Patent Office: 896 Days
• Field of Search: 707/602, 707/756, 707/760, 707/E17.073
• US Class Current: 707/760
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/247 Thesauruses; Synonyms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/58 Use of machine translation, e.g. for multi-lingual retrieval, for server-side translation for client devices or for real-time translation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/454 Multi-language systems; Localisation; Internationalisation

Abstract

A search engine server supports delivery of search results using an international search string option by identifying websites that provide support in English as well as the language of the international search string. The international search string is a search string in any of the languages that are listed/supported by the search engine server. The search engine server delivers web links of websites that provide support in both English as well the language of the international search string by identifying conjugate English terms, strings or phrases for the international search string, that provide exact or approximate equivalent meaning for searching. In addition, the search engine server also provides web links of websites that provide international language support by utilizing a thesaurus in English that provides synonyms for the conjugate English terms. The search engine server also translates websites where there is no support in the language of the search string.

Claims

1. A web search system that couples via an Internet with both a plurality of user'"'"'s devices and a plurality of servers that host a plurality of web pages, each of the plurality of web pages being based on one of a plurality of languages, the web search system comprising:

a first processing infrastructure including a processing device that gathers a plurality of text data from the plurality of web pages via a web crawling process;

a second processing infrastructure including a search engine server device that responds to receipt of a first search string from a first device of the plurality of user'"'"'s devices by translating the first search string to a second search string, the first search string being of a first of the plurality of languages and the second search string being of a second of the plurality of languages;

the second processing infrastructure identifies a plurality of alternate meaning strings based on at least one of the first search string and the second search string, the plurality of alternate meaning strings being of the second of the plurality of languages and having meanings that differ from one another due to alternate meanings of the first search string; and

the second processing infrastructure generating a first search results relating to selections from the plurality of text data, the generation being based on the first search string, the second search string, and the plurality of alternate meaning strings.

2. The web search system of claim 1, wherein the first search results are delivered to the first device to support a visual presentation in the first of the plurality of languages.

3. The web search system of claim 2, wherein at least a portion of the first search results are translated to the first of the plurality of languages.

4. The web search system of claim 1, wherein the second processing infrastructure considers a first setting associated with the first device, the first setting being related to a search approach to be used with the first search string.

5. The web search system of claim 1, wherein a first alternate meaning string of the plurality of alternate meaning strings is a translated form of a second alternate meaning string identified based on the first search string.

6. The web search system of claim 5, wherein the consideration results in enabling use of the first alternate meaning string.

7. The web search system of claim 5, wherein the consideration results in enabling use of translation.

8. A web search system that supports both a plurality of user devices and a plurality of servers that host a plurality of web pages, a first group of the plurality of web pages being based on a first language, a second group of the plurality of web pages being based on a second language, the web search system comprising:

a processing infrastructure including a search engine server device that responds to receipt of an original search string from a first device of the plurality of user devices by generating from the original search string a plurality of alternative meaning search strings that have meanings that differ from one another due to alternate meanings of the original search string, the first search string being of the first language and the plurality of alternative meaning search strings being of the second language;

the processing infrastructure generates a first search results relating to selections from the plurality of web pages, the generation being based on a matching process that uses the plurality of alternative meaning search strings; and

the processing infrastructure supports a visual presentation of at least portions of the first search results in the first language on the first device.

9. The web search system of claim 8, wherein the matching process also involves the first search string.

10. The web search system of claim 8, wherein the plurality of alternative meaning search strings are generated based on a plurality of alternate meanings associated with the original search string.

11. The web search system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of alternate meanings are translated to the second language to yield the plurality of alternative meaning search strings.

12. The web search system of claim 10, wherein the processing infrastructure considers a first setting associated with the first device, the first setting being related to a search approach to be used with the alternate meaning search strings.

13. The web search system of claim 12, wherein the consideration results in enabling use of the first alternate meaning string.

14. A method used by a web search system that supports both a plurality of user devices and a plurality of servers that host a plurality of web pages, a first group of the plurality of web pages being based on a first language, a second group of the plurality of web pages being based on a second language, the web search system comprising:

responding to receipt of an original search string from a first device of the plurality of user devices by generating from the original search string a plurality of alternative meaning search strings that have meanings that differ from one another due to alternate meanings of the original search string, the original search string being of the first language and the at least one alternative meaning search string being of the second language;

generating a first search results relating to selections from the plurality of web pages, the generation being based on a matching process that uses the plurality of alternative meaning search strings; and

supporting a visual presentation of at least portions of the first search results in the first language on the first device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the matching process also involves the first search string.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the plurality of alternative meaning search strings is generated based on a plurality of alternate meanings associated with the original search strings.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the plurality of alternate meaning of the original search strings is translated to the second language to yield the a plurality of alternative meaning search strings.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the processing infrastructure considers a first setting associated with the first device, the first setting being related to a search approach to be used with the at least one alternate meaning search string.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the consideration results in enabling use of the a plurality of alternate meaning strings.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the consideration results in a change in the scope of a search process corresponding to the generation.