Corpus specific queries for corpora from search query

• US 9,251,202 B1
• Filed: 06/25/2013
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Uszkoreit, Jakob D., Liang, Percy, Bikel, Daniel M., Gupta, Pravir K., Bar-or, Omer
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, CAM LINH T
• Application Number:
  US13/926,649
• Time in Patent Office: 952 Days
• Field of Search: 707/723, 707/708, 707/731, 707/760
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3338 Query expansion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

A system determines search hypotheses for a search query, each search hypothesis defining a search type and respectively corresponding to a resource corpus of a type that matches the search type; for each search hypothesis, generate a hypothesis search query based on the search query and the search type and submits the hypothesis search query to a search service to determine a search hypothesis score, and for each search hypothesis having a search hypothesis score meeting a search hypothesis threshold, providing search results for the search operation performed for the hypothesis search query determined for the search hypothesis; and for each search hypothesis not having a search hypothesis score meeting a search hypothesis threshold, not providing search results for the search operation performed for the hypothesis search query determined for the search hypothesis.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method performed by a data processing apparatus, the method comprising:

determining search hypotheses for a search query, each search hypothesis defining a search type and respectively corresponding to a resource corpus of a type that matches the search type, and wherein;

the search type defined by each search hypothesis is different from the search type defined by each other search hypothesis, and

each resource corpus of a particular type is different from a resource corpus of another, different type;

for each search hypothesis;

generating a hypothesis search query based on the search query and the search type defined by the hypothesis;

submitting the hypothesis search query to a search service that performs a search operation on a resource corpus of the type that matches the search type of the search hypothesis and receiving, in response to the search of the resource corpus, data describing resources that are determined to be responsive to the hypothesis search query;

determining, from the data describing the resources, a search hypothesis score for the search hypothesis;

for each search hypothesis having a search hypothesis score meeting a search hypothesis threshold, providing search results for the search operation performed for the hypothesis search query determined for the search hypothesis; and

for each search hypothesis not having a search hypothesis score meeting a search hypothesis threshold, not providing search results for the search operation performed for the hypothesis search query determined for the search hypothesis;

wherein a plurality of search hypothesis scores are generated for the search hypotheses and a corresponding plurality of different corpora are searched by corresponding hypothesis search queries.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining search hypotheses for a search query comprises:

parsing the query to select n-grams from the query; and

for each selected n-gram, determining a search hypothesis based on a semantic relevance of the n-gram to the search type of the search hypothesis.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein determining search hypotheses for a search query further comprises determine at least one default hypothesis defining a general web corpus search type.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating a hypothesis search query based on the search query and the search type comprises generating a hypothesis search query having n-grams that are different from n-grams of the search query.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining, from the data describing the resources, a search hypothesis score comprises determining a quality metric value for search results provided in response to the hypothesis search query.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein determining the quality metric value comprises determining a quality score that is a measure of quality of resources identified by the search results, the measure of quality being independent of user interactions at user devices.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein determining the quality metric value comprises determining a quality score that is a measure of user satisfaction in response to the search results, the measure of user satisfaction being dependent on user interactions with the search results at user devices.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the search query is generated from voice command inputs.

9. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions executable by a data processing apparatus and that upon such execution causes the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

determining search hypotheses for a search query, each search hypothesis defining a search type and respectively corresponding to a resource corpus of a type that matches the search type, and wherein;

the search type defined by each search hypothesis is different from the search type defined by each other search hypothesis, and

each resource corpus of a particular type is different from a resource corpus of another, different type;

for each search hypothesis;

generating a hypothesis search query based on the search query and the search type defined by the hypothesis;

submitting the hypothesis search query to a search service that performs a search operation on a resource corpus of the type that matches the search type of the search hypothesis and receiving, in response to the search of the resource corpus, data describing resources that are determined to be responsive to the hypothesis search query;

determining, from the data describing the resources, a search hypothesis score for the search hypothesis;

for each search hypothesis having a search hypothesis score meeting a search hypothesis threshold, providing search results for the search operation performed for the hypothesis search query determined for the search hypothesis; and

for each search hypothesis not having a search hypothesis score meeting a search hypothesis threshold, not providing search results for the search operation performed for the hypothesis search query determined for the search hypothesis;

wherein a plurality of search hypothesis scores are generated for the search hypotheses and a corresponding plurality of different corpora are searched by corresponding hypothesis search queries.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein determining search hypotheses for a search query comprises:

parsing the query to select n-grams from the query; and

for each selected n-gram, determining a search hypothesis based on a semantic relevance of the n-gram to the search type of the search hypothesis.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein determining search hypotheses for a search query further comprises determine at least one default hypothesis defining a general web corpus search type.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein generating a hypothesis search query based on the search query and the search type comprises generating a hypothesis search query having n-grams that are different from n-grams of the search query.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein determining, from the data describing the resources, a search hypothesis score comprises determining a quality metric value for search results provided in response to the hypothesis search query.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein determining the quality metric value comprises determining a quality score that is a measure of quality of resources identified by the search results, the measure of quality being independent of user interactions at user devices.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein determining the quality metric value comprises determining a quality score that is a measure of user satisfaction in response to the search results, the measure of user satisfaction being dependent on user interactions with the search results at user devices.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the search query is generated from voice command inputs.

17. A system, comprising:

a data processing apparatus; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium in data communication with the data processing apparatus storing instructions executable by the data processing apparatus and that upon such execution causes the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising;

determining search hypotheses for a search query, each search hypothesis defining a search type and respectively corresponding to a resource corpus of a type that matches the search type, and wherein;

the search type defined by each search hypothesis is different from the search type defined by each other search hypothesis, and

each resource corpus of a particular type is different from a resource corpus of another, different type;

for each search hypothesis;

generating a hypothesis search query based on the search query and the search type defined by the hypothesis;

submitting the hypothesis search query to a search service that performs a search operation on a resource corpus of the type that matches the search type of the search hypothesis and receiving, in response to the search of the resource corpus, data describing resources that are determined to be responsive to the hypothesis search query;

determining, from the data describing the resources, a search hypothesis score for the search hypothesis;

for each search hypothesis having a search hypothesis score meeting a search hypothesis threshold, providing search results for the search operation performed for the hypothesis search query determined for the search hypothesis; and

for each search hypothesis not having a search hypothesis score meeting a search hypothesis threshold, not providing search results for the search operation performed for the hypothesis search query determined for the search hypothesis;

wherein a plurality of search hypothesis scores are generated for the search hypotheses and a corresponding plurality of different corpora are searched by corresponding hypothesis search queries.