Customized search

• US 9,262,525 B2
• Filed: 10/17/2008
• Issued: 02/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Shafer, John C., Agrawal, Rakesh
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Jr., Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): BROMELL, ALEXANDRIA Y
• Application Number:
  US12/253,658
• Publication Number:
  US 20100114925A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,678 Days
• Field of Search: 707/722, 707/706, 707/769
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2455 Query execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed herein for providing a custom search engine. In one aspect, a first search query is received from a requestor. First search results contain search result items that match the first search query are obtained. A least one sub-query is generated from the first search results. The generating is based on rules for a particular custom search engine. Second search results that match the sub-query are then obtained. A search result set is formed from a corpus that includes the first search results and the second search results. The generating of the search result set is based on the rules for the particular custom search engine. The search result set is provided to the requester. In one aspect an interface for designing a custom search engine is provided. The interface allows the designer to specify the layout of a search results page.

Claims

1. A machine implemented method comprising the steps of:

receiving information at a first electronic device from a requestor electronic device;

determining first results from a first corpus based on the information, the first results include a plurality of items;

receiving an identification from the requestor electronic device that identifies a particular custom search engine having rules;

generating sub-queries for respective ones of the items based on the respective items, the generating sub-queries is based on the rules for the particular custom search engine;

determining a second corpus to search, the determining the second corpus is based on configuration information for the custom search engine;

searching the second corpus using the sub-queries to obtain second results that match the sub-queries;

generating a search result set from the first results and the second results, the generating a search result set is based on the rules for the particular custom search engine, the generating a search result set includes augmenting respective ones of the items in the first results with a portion of the second results obtained by the sub-query for the respective item; and

providing the search result set from the first electronic device to the requestor electronic device.

2. A machine implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information received at the first electronic device includes an initial search query, the determining first results from the first corpus based on the information includes obtaining initial search results that match the initial search query.

3. A machine implemented method as recited in claim 2, further comprising determining content to search using the initial search query, the first results are obtained from searching the first corpus, the determining the content is based on the rules.

4. A machine implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information received at the first electronic device pertains to a user, the determining first results from the first corpus based on the information includes determining results that pertains to the user.

5. A machine implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the receiving an identification from the requestor electronic device that identifies a particular custom search engine includes receiving metadata from the requestor electronic device that identifies the particular custom search engine.

6. A machine implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the rules for the particular custom search engine specify a field in the items of the first results, and the generating sub-queries for respective ones of the items includes generating the a sub-query for a first item of the items based on data in the field for the first item.

7. A machine implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the generating a search result set includes determining which of the items from the first results to include in the search result set based on the second results.

8. A machine implemented method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

generating at least one sub-query based on the second results, the generating at least one sub-query based on the second results is based on the rules for the particular custom search engine;

obtaining third results that match the at least one sub-query that is based on the second results; and

wherein the search result set is generated from the first results, the second results, and the third results.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular custom search engine has rules that specify how to form the sub-queries from the respective ones of the plurality of items, the generating the sub-queries is based on the rules for the particular custom search engine.

10. A system comprising a processor and a computer storage medium coupled to the processor, the computer storage medium having stored thereon a set of instructions, which when executed on the processor cause the processor to:

receive a first search query from a requestor;

receive metadata from the requestor that identifies a particular custom search engine;

access stored configuration information for the particular custom search engine that is identified by the metadata;

determine a first corpus to search, the determining the first corpus to search is based on the configuration information, wherein the first corpus is structured content having one or more fields;

search the first corpus using the first search query to obtain first search results that match the first search query, the first search results include a plurality of search result items, the search result items each having data for a first field of the fields;

determine a second corpus to search, the determining the second corpus is based on the configuration information;

generate sub-queries for respective ones of the search result items, the generating sub-queries is based on the configuration information that identifies the first field, wherein the generating the sub-queries includes forming a sub-query for a respective one of the search result items from data in the first field for the respective search result item;

search the second corpus using the sub-queries to obtain second search results that match the sub-queries;

generate a search result set from the first search results and the second search results, the generating a search result set is based on the configuration information, the generating the search result set includes augmenting respective ones of the search result items from the first search results with a portion of the second search results obtained by the sub-query for the respective search result item from the first search results; and

provide the search result set to the requestor.

11. A system as recited in claim 10, further comprising instructions that cause the processor to:

provide an interface for a designer to design the particular custom search engine;

receive information in the interface that defines the particular custom search engine;

store the information received in the interface; and

associate the information received in the interface with the particular custom search engine.

12. A system as recited in claim 10, further comprising instructions that cause the processor to:

generate first code for constructing a search box for entering an initial search query in a client that renders the search box, the first code causes a framework for a search results page to be automatically loaded in the client;

generate second code for forwarding the initial search query and metadata that identifies the custom search engine to a search engine that has access to the stored configuration information; and

provide the first code and the second code.

13. A method comprising:

providing an interface for providing or identifying content for custom search engines;

receiving via the interface, for each of a plurality of custom search engines, either initial content to be searched or identification of initial content to be searched for each custom search engine;

creating an index in association with a first custom search engine of the plurality of custom search engines in response to receiving an identifier of initial content for the first custom search engine in the interface;

receiving via the interface, for each of the plurality of custom search engines, identification of additional content to be searched for each of the respective custom search engines;

receiving a search query at a first electronic device from a requestor electronic device;

receiving an identification from the requestor electronic device that identifies the first custom search engine of the plurality of custom search engines;

searching the initial content for the first custom search engine based on the search query and the index to produce initial search results that include a plurality of items;

generating sub-queries for respective ones of the items in the plurality of items in the initial search results, the generating sub-queries is based on rules for the first custom search engine, wherein the rules for the first custom search engine specify a field in each of the plurality of items in the initial search results, and the generating a sub-query includes generating the sub-queries based on information in the fields of the respective items;

obtaining additional search results that match the sub-queries, including searching the additional content for the first custom search engine;

generating a search result set from the initial search results and the additional search results, the generating a search result set is based on the rules for the first custom search engine and includes augmenting respective ones of the items in the initial search results with an additional search result obtained from the sub-query for the respective item in the initial search results; and

providing the search result set to the requestor electronic device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the obtaining the additional search results includes searching content associated with URLs that are specified in the rules for the first custom search engine.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

storing initial content in association with the first custom search engine in response to receiving the initial content for the first custom search engine in the interface.