Methods and systems for dynamically suggesting answers to questions submitted to a portal of an online service

• US 9,195,760 B2
• Filed: 10/29/2013
• Issued: 11/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: McFarlane, Patrick, Mathrubootham, Ganesh, Yang, Shuchun
• Primary Examiner(s): Boccio, Vincent F
• Application Number:
  US14/066,107
• Publication Number:
  US 20140059057A1
• Time in Patent Office: 756 Days
• Field of Search: 707/765, 707/766, 707/767, 707/768
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/334 Query execution G06F16/335 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for dynamically suggesting answers to questions submitted to a portal of an online service. These mechanisms and methods for dynamically suggesting answers to questions submitted to a portal of an online service can enable embodiments to provide help document suggestions with limited user input. The ability of embodiments to provide help document search term suggestions with limited user input can enable users to quickly and efficiently find useful help documents.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, from a user system at a host system having a processor system including at least one processor and a memory system, user input for conducting a search, the user input including one or more input terms;

automatically searching, by the processor system, a storage area in the memory system at the host system for stored search strings recorded from prior searches that are similar to the user input, the search strings each having one or more search terms;

identifying a subset of the stored search strings that are similar to the user input, as a result of the searching;

automatically determining, by the host system, a score for each of the search strings in the subset, the score being a value that indicates an expected likelihood that the user will be interested in the search string, wherein the score for each of the search strings is based on a plurality of factors including;

a count of a number of the input terms in the user input that are the same as the one or more the search terms in the search string,

a relevancy of a collection of documents found when a search is performed using the search string, and

how often users have chosen the search string when suggested by the host system;

ranking the search strings in the subset, in accordance with the determined scores; and

sending, from the host system to the user system, the search strings in the subset, listed in order of the ranking as search suggestions.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining an identifier of the user from whom the user input was received;

using the identifier of the user, determining search terms included in prior searches initiated by the user; and

sending, from the host system to the user system, the determined search terms included in the prior searches initiated by the user, in addition to the search suggestions.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the search suggestions that are sent are formatted such that search suggestions having a higher ranking are listed above than search suggestions having a lower ranking.

4. The method of claim 1, the host system including at least an on-demand multitenant database.

5. The method of claim 1, the search suggestions being presented to the user prior to the user inputting a full word.

6. A method comprising:

receiving, at a host system, user input for conducting a search, the host system having a processor system including at least one processor and a memory system, the host system including at least an on-demand multitenant database;

automatically searching, by the processor system, a storage area in the memory system at the host system for stored search terms from prior searches that are similar to the user input;

automatically determining, the host system a ranking for the search terms found, the ranking being a value that indicates an expected likelihood that the user will be interested in the search term, which is based on how often users choose the search terms found;

after receiving a predetermined number of characters of user input, sending, from the host system to the user system, the search terms found, listed in order of ranking as search suggestions completing the user input prior regardless of whether the user is finished entering the user input;

determining, by the host, search terms searched in prior searches by the user from whom the user input was received;

sending, from the host system to the user system, the search terms searched in the prior searches, in addition to the search suggestions completing the user input;

after the automatically sending, receiving, at the host system, a search term for conducting a search;

in response, at the host system, conducting, by the host, a search for documents having the search term, automatically incrementing, by the host, a value representing a number of votes for the search term of the search; and

saving, by the host, the incremented value in association with the search term;

storing, by the host, in a first object for storing data, search suggestions in association with scores for ranking the search suggestions, the first object including groups of similar search terms grouped together as similar search terms;

storing, by the host, in a second object for storing data, raw search terms that were previously used for conducting a search, the raw search terms being stored in association with a value representing an indication as to how many times users entered each of the raw search terms, within the second object, raw search terms that are similar to one another being grouped together;

storing, by the host, in association with the raw search terms, a value representing an indication as to how many times users entered each of the raw search terms;

storing, by the host, in association with a group of the raw search terms, a value representing an indication as to how many times users entered one of the group of raw search terms grouped together as similar to one another, the value stored in association with the group of the raw search terms being computed treating the group of raw search terms as a single raw search term;

determining, by the host, that the value stored in association with the group has crossed a threshold value; and

in response, adding, by the host, the group of raw search terms to the first object;

determining, by the host, whether a magnitude of the value of the indication is greater than a threshold;

if the magnitude of the value of the indication is greater than the threshold, adding, by the host, the raw search term to the first object as a search suggestion; and

storing, by the host, search results in association with the search suggestions of the first object.

7. A system comprising:

a host system having a processor system including at least one Processor, and

a memory system, the memory system storing one or more machine instructions adapted to be executed by the processor system for;

receiving, from a user system, user input for conducting a search, the user input including one or more input terms;

automatically searching a storage area in the memory system at the host system for stored search strings recorded from prior searches that are similar to the user input, the search strings each having one or more search terms;

identifying a subset of the stored search strings that are similar to the user input, as a result of the searching;

automatically determining a score for each of the search strings in the subset, the score being a value that indicates an expected likelihood that the user will be interested in the search string, wherein the score for each of the search strings is based on a plurality of factors including;

a count of a number of the input terms in the user input that are the same as the one or more the search terms in the search string,

a relevancy of a collection of documents found when a search is performed using the search string, and

how often users have chosen the search string when suggested by the host system;

ranking the search strings in the subset, in accordance with the determined scores; and

sending, to the user system, the search strings in the subset, listed in order of the ranking as search suggestions.

8. A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium, the computer program product including computer code adapted to be executed by a computer to perform a method comprising:

receiving, from a user system at a host system having a processor system including at least one processor and a memory system, user input for conducting a search, the user input including one or more input terms;

automatically searching, by the processor system, a storage area in the memory system at the host system for stored search strings recorded from prior searches that are similar to the user input, the search strings each having one or more search terms;

identifying a subset of the stored search strings that are similar to the user input, as a result of the searching;

automatically determining, by the host system, a score for each of the search strings in the subset, the score being a value that indicates an expected likelihood that the user will be interested in the search string, wherein the score for each of the search strings is based on a plurality of factors including;

a count of a number of the input terms in the user input that are the same as the one or more the search terms in the search string,

a relevancy of a collection of documents found when a search is performed using the search string, and

how often users have chosen the search string when suggested by the host system;

ranking the search strings in the subset, in accordance with the determined scores; and

sending, from the host system to the user system, the search strings in the subset, listed in order of the ranking as search suggestions.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the plurality of factors further includes a count of a number of previous searches having the search string and submitted to the host system.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the relevancy of the collection of documents found when a search is performed using the search string is based on a highest relevancy score of a preconfigured number of the highest ranked documents found when the search is performed using the search string.

11. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the relevancy of the collection of documents found when a search is performed using the search string is based on an average relevancy score of a preconfigured number of the highest ranked documents found when the search is performed using the search string.

12. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the relevancy of the collection of documents found when a search is performed using the search string is based on a difference between a highest relevancy score and a lowest relevancy score of a preconfigured number of the highest ranked documents found when the search is performed using the search string.

13. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the score for each search string is further based on a total number of words that make up the search string.

14. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein a maximum value is preconfigured for each of the factors to prevent any one factor from overwhelming other factors when determining the score for each of the search strings.

15. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the score for each search string is further based on a normalization of values calculated for the factors.

16. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein a weight is preconfigured for each of the factors.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the score for each search string is further based on weighting values calculated for the factors in accordance with the respective preconfigured weights.

18. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein a percentage amount that each of the factors contributes to the score is preconfigured.

19. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the score for each search string is further based on a sum of values determined for the factors.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the score is determined by applying an additional preconfigured factor to the sum, the additional preconfigured factor converting the sum to a percentage.

21. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the memory system stores a first object having the search strings recorded from prior searches, and a second object storing grouped search strings synthesized from the search strings in the first object.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the search strings in the second object are grouped based on a commonality of search terms.

23. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein a search string in the first object is moved to the second object when the search string has been entered a threshold number of times.

24. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the searching is performed within the second object.

25. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the search strings recorded from prior searches include search strings previously entered by a plurality of users of the host system for performing searches.

26. The computer program product of claim 8, further comprising:

identifying, by the host system, an identifier of the user from which the user input is received; and

determining one of a plurality of storage areas in the memory system that is specific to the identifier of the user;

wherein searching the storage area in the memory system at the host system for the one or more search strings includes searching the one of the plurality of storage areas determined to be specific to the identifier of the user for the one or more search strings.