Search query reformulation using result term occurrence count

• US 9,110,993 B1
• Filed: 09/13/2012
• Issued: 08/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Shattuck, Scott Hamilton
• Primary Examiner(s): Trujillo, James
• Assistant Examiner(s): Le, Jessica N
• Application Number:
  US13/615,045
• Time in Patent Office: 1,069 Days
• Field of Search: 707/706
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3325 Reformulation based on results of preceding query
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for processing voice commands. In one aspect, a method includes obtaining an occurrence count for terms that occur in resources that a search engine has identified as being responsive to an original search query, identifying a term that occurs in the resources, based on the occurrence count, providing the term and a control for display on a client device, the control being associated with the term and with promotion or demotion criteria, receiving a signal indicating that the user has selected the control, and automatically reformulating the original search query based on the term and the promotion or demotion criteria.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

transmitting, by a client device, a search query to a search engine;

receiving, by the client device and from the search engine, data identifying resources that are responsive to the search query;

obtaining a subset of the identified resources;

determining, by the client device, a number of times that each term of a set of terms that occur in the obtained resources occurs in the obtained resources;

transmitting, by the client device and to the search engine, an occurrence count that specifies the number of times that each term of the set of terms occurs in the obtained resources; and

receiving, by the client device and from the search engine, code that, when invoked by the client device, implements controls for automatically reformulating the search query to include or exclude one or more frequently occurring terms identified in the occurrence count.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

determining, by the client device, that a particular resource is hosted by the search engine;

transmitting, by the client device and to the search engine, a request for the particular resource; and

receiving, by the client device and from the search engine, the occurrence count of the particular resource.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising:

determining, by the client device, a second occurrence count that specifies the number of times that each term of a second set of terms occurs in the obtained resources; and

transmitting, by the client device and to the search engine, the second occurrence count.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the code that implements controls for automatically reformulating the search query to include or exclude the one or more frequently occurring terms identified in the occurrence count implements controls for:

automatically reformulating the search query to include or exclude n most frequently occurring terms identified in the occurrence count, wherein n is a positive integer; and

automatically reformulating the search query to promote or demote the most frequently occurring terms identifies in the occurrence count.

5. The method of claim 1,

wherein receiving the data identifying resources that are responsive to the search query comprises receiving a search engine results page that includes search results identifying the resources that are responsive to the search query;

wherein the method further comprises identifying a subset of the search results that are visible on a user interface of the client device; and

wherein obtaining the identified resources comprises obtaining the resources referenced by the identified subset of search results.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising:

based on the code that implements controls for automatically reformulating the search query, generating, by the client device, controls for a user to reformulate the search query.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the controls for a user to reformulate the search query comprise suggested search queries that are reformulated by the client device.

8. A system comprising:

one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

transmitting, by a client device, a search query to a search engine;

receiving, by the client device and from the search engine, data identifying resources that are responsive to the search query;

obtaining a subset of the identified resources;

determining, by the client device, a number of times that each term of a set of terms that occur in the obtained resources occurs in the obtained resources;

transmitting, by the client device and to the search engine, an occurrence count that specifies the number of times that each term of the set of terms occurs in the obtained resources; and

receiving, by the client device and from the search engine, code that, when invoked by the client device, implements controls for automatically reformulating the search query to include or exclude one or more frequently occurring terms identified in the occurrence count.

9. The system of claim 8, comprising:

determining, by the client device, that a particular resource is hosted by the search engine;

transmitting, by the client device and to the search engine, a request for the particular resource; and

receiving, by the client device and from the search engine, the occurrence count of the particular resource.

10. The system of claim 8, comprising:

determining, by the client device, a second occurrence count that specifies the number of times that each term of a second set of terms occurs in the obtained resources; and

transmitting, by the client device and to the search engine, the second occurrence count.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the code that implements controls for automatically reformulating the search query include or exclude the one or more frequently occurring terms identified in the occurrence count implements controls for:

automatically reformulating the search query to include or exclude n most frequently occurring terms identified in the occurrence count, wherein n is a positive integer; and

automatically reformulating the search query to promote or demote the n most frequently occurring terms identifies in the occurrence count.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the subset of the identified resources include those resources that are visible on a user interface of the client device.

13. The system of claim 8, comprising:

based on the code that implements controls for automatically reformulating the search query, generating, by the client device, controls for a user to reformulate the search query.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the controls for a user to reformulate the search query comprise suggested search queries that are reformulated by the client device.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more computers which, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

transmitting, by a client device, a search query to a search engine;

receiving, by the client device and from the search engine, data identifying resources that are responsive to the search query;

obtaining a subset of the identified resources;

determining, by the client device, a number of times that each term of a set of terms that occur in the obtained resources occurs in the obtained resources;

transmitting, by the client device and to the search engine, an occurrence count that specifies the number of times that each term of the set of terms occurs in the obtained resources; and

receiving, by the client device and from the search engine, code that, when invoked by the client device, implements controls for automatically reformulating the search query to include or exclude one or more frequently occurring terms identified in the occurrence count.

16. The medium of claim 15, comprising:

determining, by the client device, that a particular resource is hosted by the search engine;

transmitting, by the client device and to the search engine, a request for the particular resource; and

receiving, by the client device and from the search engine, the occurrence count of the particular resource.

17. The medium of claim 15, wherein the code that implements controls for automatically reformulating the search query include or exclude the one or more frequently occurring terms identified in the occurrence count implements controls for:

automatically reformulating the search query to include or exclude n most frequently occurring terms identified in the occurrence count, wherein n is a positive integer; and

automatically reformulating the search query to promote or demote the n most frequently occurring terms identifies in the occurrence count.

18. The medium of claim 15, wherein the subset of the identified resources include those resources that are visible on a user interface of the client device.

19. The medium of claim 15, comprising:

based on the code that implements controls for automatically reformulating the search query, generating, by the client device, controls for a user to reformulate the search query.

20. The medium of claim 19,

wherein determining the number of times that each term of a set of terms that occur in the obtained resources occurs in the obtained resources comprises determining, by the client device, an occurrence count for a particular term for each of the obtained resources, each occurrence count indicating a number of times that the particular term occurs in the corresponding obtained resource;

wherein the method further comprises combining, by the client device, the occurrence counts for the particular term to generate a combined occurrence count that specifies a number of times that the term occurs in the obtained resources;

wherein transmitting the occurrence count comprises transmitting, by the client device and to the search engine, the combined occurrence count for the particular term that specifies the number of times that the particular term occurs in the obtained resources; and

wherein receiving the code comprises;

after transmitting the combined occurrence count, receiving, by the client device and from the search engine, code that, when invoked by the client device, implements one or more controls for automatically reformulating the search query to include or exclude the particular term corresponding to the combined occurrence count.