Search method and system

• US 9,460,158 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2013
• Issued: 10/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Inventors: Zhang, Li, Li, Jinhui, Guo, Ruijie
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, DEBBIE M
• Application Number:
  US14/037,068
• Publication Number:
  US 20140025672A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,105 Days
• Field of Search: 707/722, 707/748, 707/E17.046, 707/999.007
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

The present disclosure discloses a search method and system. A method obtains a first search result set of first search results relevant to query data submitted by a client. According to a first relevance score and a preset diversity field of each first search result in the first search result set, a second relevance score of each first search result is calculated. The preset diversity field represents an attribute category of a respective first search result. According to the first relevance score and the second relevance score, a relevance parameter score for each first search result is generated. According to a preset number of second search results and the relevance parameter score, the present number of second search results are extracted from the first search result set to display to the client. The technique achieves lower consumption of system resources, faster computation speed and more flexibility in diversification of search results.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

under control of a computer configured with executable instructions;

obtaining a set of search results that are relevant to query data submitted from a client;

classifying the set of search results into a plurality of subsets;

ranking a search result within a corresponding subset of the plurality of subsets based on a first relevance score associated with the search result;

generating a second relevance score for the search result based on a ranking of the search result within the corresponding subset; and

ranking the search result among the set of search results based on both the first relevance score and the second relevance score.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising extracting a preset number of search results from the set of search results.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, further comprising providing the preset number of search results to the client for display.

4. The method as recited in claim 2 wherein the preset number is a product of a number of diversity values and a number of recurring extractions.

5. The method as recited in claim 2, further comprising storing the query data, the preset number of search results, and a corresponding relationship between the query data and the preset number of search results into a database.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein generating the second relevance score is further based on a preset diversity field of the search result, the preset diversity field representing an attribute category of the search result.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein generating the second relevance score comprises obtaining the second relevance score based on a preset relationship between the ranking of the search result within the corresponding subset and the second relevance score.

8. One or more storage devices storing executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, instruct the computer to perform acts comprising:

obtaining a set of search results that are relevant to query data submitted from a client;

classifying the set of search results into a plurality of subsets;

ranking a search result within a corresponding subset of the plurality of subsets based on a first relevance score associated with the search result;

generating a second relevance score for the search result based on a ranking of the search result within the corresponding subset; and

ranking the search result among the set of search results based on both the first relevance score and the second relevance score.

9. The storage devices as recited in claim 8, the acts further comprising extracting a preset number of search results from the set of search results.

10. The storage devices as recited in claim 9, the acts further comprising providing the preset number of search results to the client for display.

11. The storage devices as recited in claim 9, wherein the preset number is a product of a number of diversity values and a number of recurring extractions.

12. The storage devices as recited in claim 9, the acts further comprising storing the query data, the preset number of search results, and a corresponding relationship between the query data and the preset number of search results into a database.

13. The storage devices as recited in claim 8, wherein generating the second relevance score is further based on a preset diversity field of the search result, the preset diversity field representing an attribute category of the search result.

14. The storage devices as recited in claim 8, wherein generating the second relevance score comprises obtaining the second relevance score based on a preset relationship between the ranking of the search result within the corresponding subset and the second relevance score.

15. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

storage media storing executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

obtaining a set of search results that are relevant to query data submitted from a client;

classifying the set of search results into a plurality of subsets;

ranking a search result within a corresponding subset of the plurality of subsets based on a first relevance score associated with the search result;

generating a second relevance score for the search result based on a ranking of the search result within the corresponding subset; and

ranking the search result among the set of search results based on both the first relevance score and the second relevance score.

16. The system as recited in claim 15, the acts comprising:

extracting a preset number of search results from the set of search results, the preset number being a product of a number of diversity values and a number of recurring extractions; and

providing the preset number of search results to the client for display.

17. The system as recited in claim 16, the acts further comprising storing the query data, the preset number of search results, and a corresponding relationship between the query data and the preset number of search results into a database.

18. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein generating the second relevance score is further based on a preset diversity field of the search result, the preset diversity field representing an attribute category of the search result.

19. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein generating the second relevance score comprises obtaining the second relevance score based on a preset relationship between the ranking of the search result within the corresponding subset and the second relevance score.

20. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein ranking the search result among the set of search results based on both the first relevance score and the second relevance score comprises ranking the search result among the set of search results based on a weighted combination of the first relevance score and the second relevance score of the search result.