Search of sources and targets based on relative expertise of the sources

• US 9,110,979 B2
• Filed: 06/16/2011
• Issued: 08/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Ghosh, Rishab Aiyer, Emerson, Thomas James, Cui, Lun Ted
• Primary Examiner(s): Perveen, Rehana
• Assistant Examiner(s): Waldron, Scott A
• Application Number:
  US13/161,794
• Publication Number:
  US 20110313987A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,524 Days
• Field of Search: 707/705
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/334 Query execution G06F16/335 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/382 using citations hypermedia G06F16/94
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/953 Querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines

Abstract

A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to provide a ranking of citied objects and citing subjects identified as results of a search, where the relative expertise of subjects or sources of citations to said targets or objects is considered. The relative expertise is a function of the share of the subject'"'"'s citations matching the query term or search criteria relative to the share of all subjects'"'"' citations matching the query term, weighted by the influence of the subjects. This allows the identification of “experts” on “topics” without any pre-defined categorization of topics or pre-computation of expertise. Under this novel approach, expertise can be determined on any query term in real-time.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

at least one or more processors;

a citation search engine with the at least one or more processors that in operation retrieves a plurality of citations composed by a plurality of subjects citing a plurality of objects that fit one or more search criteria,

a citation graph coupled to the citation engine, the citation graph used to determine an influence of each of the subjects and the objects, the citation graph including the plurality of citations each describing an opinion of an object by a subject, the citation graph including nodes or entities that are

     1) subjects that have an opinion or making citations, and

     2) objects cited by citations relative to subjects that have opinions or make citations;

an influence evaluation engine with the at least one or more processors that in operation, determines an expertise of a subject as a measure of the subject'"'"'s expertise in a topic relative to a larger population of multiple subjects and allows for determination of expertise on any query term in real-time; and

an object/subject selection engine with the at least one or more processors, which in operation;

ranks the cited objects of the plurality of citations using the influence and relative expertise of the subjects, and

selects objects as the search result for the user based on the matching of the objects with the search criteria as well as the relative expertise of the citing subjects.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

each of the plurality of subjects has an opinion wherein expression of the opinion is explicit, expressed, implicit, or imputed through any other technique.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein:

each of the plurality of subjects is one of;

representation of a person, web log, and entities representing Internet authors or users of social media services, user of microblogging services, users of social networks, reviewer who provides expressions of opinion, reviews, or other information useful for the estimation of influence.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein:

each of the plurality of objects is one of;

Internet web sites, blogs, videos, books, films, music, image, video, documents, data files, objects for sale, objects that are reviewed or recommended or cited, subjects/authors, natural or legal persons, citations, or any entities that are associated with a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).

5. The system of claim 1, wherein:

each of the plurality of citations describes an opinion by a subject on an object matching the search criteria in the search result.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein:

each of the plurality of citations includes one or more of;

expression of opinions on the objects, expressions of authors in the form of Tweets, blog posts, reviews of objects on Internet web sites Wikipedia entries, postings to social media, postings to websites, postings in the form of reviews, recommendations, or any other form of citation made to mailing lists, newsgroups, discussion forums, comments to websites or any other form of Internet publication.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the citation search engine enables a citation centric search process that focuses on influence of the plurality subjects that cite the plurality of objects.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the citation search engine accepts and enforces a plurality of criteria on citation searching, retrieving and ranking, each of which is either be explicitly described by a user or best guessed by the system based on internal statistical data.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the relative expertise is a function of share of the subject'"'"'s citations matching the search criteria relative to share of all subjects'"'"' citations matching the search criteria.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the influence evaluation engine adopts a semantic graph of related terms, which allows match to the query term used for computing the relative expertise of the subject to be broader than a match of the query term itself.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the object/subject selection engine ranks the objects in the search result based on one or more of;

a ranking function of the citations for the objects matching the search criteria, the influence of the subjects of each matching citation, and the relative expertise on of each of the citing subjects.

12. A system, comprising:

at least one or more processors;

a citation search engine with the at least one or more processors that in operation retrieves a plurality of citations composed by a plurality of subjects citing a plurality of objects that fit one or more search criteria,

a citation graph coupled to the citation engine, the citation graph used to determine an influence of each of the subjects and the objects, the citation graph including the plurality of citations each describing an opinion of an object by a subject, the citation graph including nodes or entities that are

     1) subjects that have an opinion or making citations, and

     2) objects cited by citations relative to subjects that have opinions or make citations;

an influence evaluation engine with the at least one or more processors that in operation, determines an expertise of a subject as a measure of the subject'"'"'s expertise in a topic relative to a larger population of multiple subjects and allows for determination of expertise on any query term in real-time; and

an object/subject selection engine with the at least one or more processors, which in operation;

ranks the citing subjects of the plurality of citations using the influence and relative expertise of the subjects, and

selects subjects as the search result for the user based on the influence scores and/or the relative expertise of the citing subjects.

13. A method, comprising:

using at least one or more processors to retrieve a plurality of citations composed by a plurality of subjects citing a plurality of objects that fit one or more search criteria;

using a citation graph to determine an influence of each of the subjects and the objects, the citation graph including the plurality of citations each describing an opinion of an object by subject, the citation graph including nodes or entities that are

     1) subjects that have an opinion or making citations, and

     2) objects cited by citations relative to subjects that have opinions or make citations;

using the at least one or more processors to determine an expertise of a subject as a measure of the subject'"'"'s expertise in a topic relative to a larger population of multiple subjects and allow for determination of expertise on any query term in real-time;

using the at least one or more processors to rank the cited objects of the plurality of citations using the influence and relative expertise of the subjects;

using the at least one or more processors to select objects as the search result for the user based on the matching of the objects with the search criteria as well as the relative expertise of the citing subjects.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

enabling a citation centric search process that focuses on influence of the plurality subjects that cite the plurality of objects.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

accepting and enforcing a plurality of criteria on citation searching, retrieving and ranking, each of which is either be explicitly described by a user or best guessed by the system based on internal statistical data.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

adopting a semantic graph of related terms, which allows match to the query term used for computing the relative expertise of the subject to be broader than a match of the query term itself.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

ranking the objects in the search result based on one or more of;

a ranking function of the citations for the objects matching the search criteria, the influence of the subjects of each matching citation, and the relative expertise on of each of the citing subjects.

18. A method, comprising:

using at least one or more processors to retrieve a plurality of citations composed by a plurality of subjects citing a plurality of objects that fit one or more search criteria;

using a citation graph to determine an influence of each of the subjects and the objects, the citation graph including the plurality of citations each describing an opinion of an object by subject, the citation graph including nodes or entities that are

     1) subjects that have an opinion or making citations, and

     2) objects cited by citations relative to subjects that have opinions or make citations;

using the at least one or more processors to determine an expertise of a subject as a measure of the subject'"'"'s expertise in a topic relative to a larger population of multiple subjects and allow for determination of expertise on any query term in real-time;

using the at least one or more processors to rank the citing subjects of the plurality of citations using the influence and relative expertise of the subjects;

using the at least one or more processors to select subjects as the search result for the user based on the influence scores and/or the relative expertise of the citing subjects.