Providing images of named resources in response to a search query

• US 9,411,827 B1
• Filed: 10/15/2015
• Issued: 08/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Osman, Osman Ahmed, Bau, David, Erkan, Gunes, Safier, Scott A., Lo, Ching Yu Conrad
• Primary Examiner(s): Corrielus, Jean M
• Application Number:
  US14/883,873
• Time in Patent Office: 299 Days
• Field of Search: 707/741, 707/770, 707/758, 707/722, 707/706, 707/765, 707/772, 382/100, 382/115, 382/118
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5854 using shape and object relationship
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5866 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/172 Classification, e.g. identification

Abstract

Systems, computer program products, apparatus, and methods are described that perform operations including receiving a search query that includes a name, receiving multiple resources that have been identified by a search engine as best satisfying the search query, wherein the identified multiple resources include a resource including a plurality of images. The operations include identifying an image of the plurality of images displaying a face of the person. The image is identified based on a description associated with the image. The description is based at least in part on one or more resources included in the search results. The operations further include providing the identified image with the search results. The search results are provided as a plurality of links. Each link identifies a corresponding resource of the identified plurality of resources.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by one or more computers, a query from a device, the query including a name of a person;

identifying, by the one or more computers, a set of documents responsive to the query;

generating, by the one or more computers, a set of search results that includes search results that each reference a different document in the set of documents, wherein for at least one of the search results, the at least one search result includes a face image of the person whose name is included in the query, the face image being selected from among face images of different people included in the document referenced by at least one search result; and

providing, by the one or more computers and for display at the device, the generated set of search results in a response to the query.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the set of search results comprises generating the at least one search result to include multiple images selected from among images in the document referenced by the at least one search result;

and

wherein providing the generated set of search results comprises providing the multiple images in the at least one search result for display at the device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

for a document in the set of documents;

associating a score with each image of multiple images of the document, each score representing a quality of the image to which the score is associated;

ranking the multiple images based at least in part on the scores associated with the respective images;

selecting, from among the multiple images, an image having a highest rank;

providing the selected image having the highest rank for display with the generated set of search results in a response to the query.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein associating a score with each image of the multiple images comprises:

determining, for each of the multiple images, the score to associate with the image based on a size of the image, a resolution of the image, or one or more colors of the image.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a web page that includes the generated set of search results,

wherein providing the generated set of search results comprises providing the generated web page in the response to the query.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein generating the web page comprises generating a web page that includes multiple search results that each include a different image of the face of the person, wherein each of the different images is selected from the document referenced by the search result that includes the image.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a set of documents responsive to the query comprises identifying a set of multiple web pages responsive to the query.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the set of search results comprises:

accessing information relating to face images in a computer-searchable index;

for one or more of the documents in the set of documents, selecting a face image that is included in the one or more documents based on the accessed information from the computer-searchable index; and

including, in the set of search results, the face images selected based on the accessed information from the computer-searchable index.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the search results comprises:

accessing one or more face images from a repository of images extracted from a collection of documents, the repository of images being created prior to receiving the query from the device.

10. A system comprising:

one or more computers; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium coupled to the one or more computers having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

receiving, by one or more computers, a query from a device, the query including a name of a person;

identifying, by the one or more computers, a set of documents responsive to the query;

generating, by the one or more computers, a set of search results that includes search results that each reference a different document in the set of documents, wherein for at least one of the search results, the at least one search result includes a face image of the person whose name is included in the query, the face image being selected from among face images of different people included in the document referenced by at least one search result; and

providing, by the one or more computers and for display at the device, the generated set of search results in a response to the query.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein generating the set of search results comprises generating the at least one search result to include multiple images selected from among images in the document referenced by the at least one search result;

and

wherein providing the generated set of search results comprises providing the multiple images in the at least one search result for display at the device.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

for a document in the set of documents;

associating a score with each image of multiple images of the document, each score representing a quality of the image to which the score is associated;

ranking the multiple images based at least in part on the scores associated with the respective images;

selecting, from among the multiple images, an image having a highest rank;

providing the selected image having the highest rank for display with the generated set of search results in a response to the query.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein associating a score with each image of the multiple images comprises:

determining, for each of the multiple images, the score to associate with the image based on a size of the image, a resolution of the image, or one or more colors of the image.

14. The system of claim 10, further comprising generating a web page that includes the generated set of search results,

wherein providing the generated set of search results comprises providing the generated web page in the response to the query.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein generating the web page comprises generating a web page that includes multiple search results that each include a different image of the face of the person, wherein each of the different images is selected from the document referenced by the search result that includes the image.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein identifying a set of documents responsive to the query comprises identifying a set of multiple web pages responsive to the query.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein generating the set of search results comprises:

accessing information relating to face images in a computer-searchable index;

for one or more of the documents in the set of documents, selecting a face image that is included in the one or more documents based on the accessed information from the computer-searchable index; and

including, in the set of search results, the face images selected based on the accessed information from the computer-searchable index.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein generating the search results comprises:

accessing one or more face images from a repository of images extracted from a collection of documents, the repository of images being created prior to receiving the query from the device.

19. A non-transitory computer storage device encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by one or more computers, a query from a device, the query including a name of a person;

identifying, by the one or more computers, a set of documents responsive to the query;

generating, by the one or more computers, a set of search results that includes search results that each reference a different document in the set of documents, wherein for at least one of the search results, the at least one search result includes a face image of the person whose name is included in the query, the face image being selected from among face images of different people included in the document referenced by at least one search result; and

providing, by the one or more computers and for display at the device, the generated set of search results in a response to the query.

20. The non-transitory computer storage device of claim 19, wherein generating the set of search results comprises generating the at least one search result to include multiple images selected from among images in the document referenced by the at least one search result;

and

wherein providing the generated set of search results comprises providing the multiple images in the at least one search result for display at the device.