Disambiguating intents within search engine result pages

• US 9,183,310 B2
• Filed: 06/12/2012
• Issued: 11/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Li, Kang, Li, Yi, Qian, Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): Burke, Jeffrey A
• Application Number:
  US13/494,655
• Publication Number:
  US 20130332438A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,246 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

Systems, computer-readable media, and methods for generating search engine results pages are provided. A user provides a search engine with one or more query terms. The query terms may be associated with an intent, e.g. product entity, store entity, person entity. The search engine classifies the query and identifies search results that correspond to the query. The search results are grouped based on intents associated with the query. A graphical user interface displays the grouped on search results and allows the user to modify the groupings. The graphical user interface is also updated with entity or entity attributes corresponding to the intents used to group the search results.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method to generate search engine result pages, the method comprising:

receiving a query from a user;

identifying one or more entities included in the query;

identifying search results associated with the query;

locating a plurality of intents associated with the identified search results, wherein each of the plurality of intents corresponds to an entity or entity attribute of interest to the user;

grouping the search results based on the located plurality of intents;

generating a search engine results page that includes the identified search results and the located plurality of intents that are associated with the identified search results;

providing the search engine results page for display on a user device;

receiving feedback from the user regarding accuracy of the search results grouping based on the located plurality of intents, the feedback being received upon determining that the user is logged in to one or more services associated with a search engine, wherein the feedback verifies the search results groupings, removes one or more search results from the search results groupings, or adds one or more search results to the search results groupings based on the located plurality of intents;

updating the search engine results page based on the user feedback, the updated search engine results page including additional entity attributes associated with the intents corresponding to the identified search results and including user profile attributes maintained by the one or more services the user is logged in to; and

transmitting the updated search engine results page for display on the user device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the query includes an entity name.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising:

locating, in an entity database, one or more records that match the entity name;

including further entity attributes associated with the matching one or more records in the search engine results page for display on the user device; and

receiving a selection of the entity name or further entity attributes to refine the query.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the located plurality of intents associated with the identified search results is an entity attribute of interest to the user, and wherein the entity attribute is one of gender, employment, cost, or name.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more services associated with the search engine include a social network application, messaging application, or an email application.

6. One or more hardware computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon for performing a method to refine search results returned by a search engine having, processors in communication with the hardware media for executing the following method steps:

receiving a user query by the search engine;

determining whether a client is in public mode or private mode, wherein the private mode is enabled when the user is logged in to one or more services associated with the search engine and public mode is enabled when the user is not logged in to the one or more services associated with the search engine;

when the user is in public mode, providing a public set of search results that match the query; and

when the user is in private mode, providing a private set of search results that match the query and profile information associated with the one or more services that the user is logged-in to and ranking the private set of search results based on the match between the search results and user profile attributes maintained by the one or more services.

7. The media of claim 6, wherein the private set of search results and public set of search results are associated with intents based on representative terms included in prior queries and click frequencies associated with the private and public sets of search results as recorded in a query log.

8. The media of claim 7, wherein, in private mode, the click frequencies and prior queries are associated with the user that is logged in to the one or more services.

9. The media of claim 7, further comprising:

grouping the private set of search results and public set of search results based on intents.

10. The media of claim 7, wherein the intents include entity name or entity attributes.

11. The media of claim 10, further comprising:

matching the user profile attributes with entity attributes.

12. A computer system for providing search results, the computer system comprising:

a memory storing entities and corresponding content; and

a processor communicatively connected to the memory that executes the following;

(1) an intent detector component that determines representative terms based on a user query, search results corresponding to the user query, and click frequencies associated with the search results, wherein representative terms are used to associate search results with at least one intent,

(2) a ranker component that ranks the search results based on the representative terms associated with the user query, and

(3) a presenter component that groups the search results into groups based on the representative terms for display on a client device, wherein the representative terms correspond to an entity or attributes of an entity and the search results are tagged with a graphical indication that represents the entity or entity attributes associated with one or more of the at least one intents.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor further executes a feedback component that receives user modifications to the groups.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the presenter component further generates a search engine results page that includes the groups of search results, wherein each group represents a different intent for the user query.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein each group is associated with a navigable link that generates a new search engine results page with search results that are associated with the intent of the navigable link upon appropriate interaction by the user.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the search engine results page includes buttons that allow a user to add search results to each group and buttons to remove search results from each group.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the search engine results page includes buttons that allow a user to create a new intent and buttons to group search results with the new intent.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein for a user that is currently logged-in, the search engine results page is updated to include controls that allow the user to create a new intent and to group search results associated with the new intent, controls that allow the user to add search results to each group, and controls that allow the user to remove search results from each group.