Disambiguation of online social mentions

• US 9,477,768 B1
• Filed: 06/29/2015
• Issued: 10/25/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Talmor, Alon
• Primary Examiner(s): AL HASHEMI, SANA A
• Application Number:
  US14/754,659
• Time in Patent Office: 484 Days
• Field of Search: 707/608, 707/687, 707/706, 707/791, 707/828, 707/821, 707/953
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2425 Iterative querying; Query formulation based on the results of a preceding query
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/288 Entity relationship models
• 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: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing

Abstract

The technology disclosed relates to identifying entity reflections that refer to a same real-world entity. In particular, it relates to using statistical functions to make probabilistic deductions about entity attributes, which are used to construct optimal combinations of entity attributes. These optimal combinations of entity attributes are further used to generate search queries that return more precise search results with greater recall.

Claims

1. A method of disambiguating online social mentions of a real-world entity, the method including:

selecting one or more core entity attributes that represent a real-world entity as a first search attribute set for use in searching biographical sources;

receiving, responsive to searching the biographical sources based on the first search attribute set, entity reflections that include supplemental entity attributes for the real-world entity;

using a combination of the selected core entity attributes and one or more supplemental entity attributes to define a second search attribute set that is narrower than the first search attribute set;

receiving, responsive to searching further web sources based on the second search attribute set, more entity reflections that include meta entity attributes for the real-world entity; and

updating the combination to include one or more of the meta entity attributes.

2. The method of claim 1, further including:

selecting one or more meta entity attributes to combine with the second search attribute set to form a third search attribute set that is narrower than the second search attribute set;

electronically receiving, responsive to the third search attribute set, additional entity reflections that include additional meta entity attributes; and

updating the combination to include one or more of the additional meta entity attributes.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the entity reflections represent one or more web mentions or web profiles of the real-world entity.

4. The method of claim 1, further including:

using an entity profile from a primary biographical source that includes the core entity attributes selected as the first search attribute set used to search the biographical sources.

5. The method of claim 1, further including:

generating a set of predicate results from one or more web crawls using predicate analysis based on affix schemas with predetermined context words before and after entity mentions;

applying one or more of the first or second search attribute sets to search among the predicate results set;

electronically receiving entity reflections from searching the predicate results set that include predicated entity attributes for the real-world entity; and

updating the combination to include one or more of the predicated entity attributes.

6. The method of claim 1, further including applying one or more probability distribution functions or joint probability distribution functions to estimate resulting cohort size of entity reflections responsive to the first search attribute set.

7. The method of claim 1, further including applying one or more probability distribution functions or joint probability distribution functions to estimate resulting cohort size of entity reflections responsive to the second search attribute set.

8. The method of claim 1, further including applying one or more probability distribution functions or joint probability distribution functions to estimate resulting cohort size of entity reflections responsive to the first and second search attribute sets.

9. A method for creating a unique online social mention of a real-world entity from a plurality of online social mentions, the method including:

selecting one or more core entity attributes that represent a real-world entity as a first search attribute set for searching biographical sources;

electronically receiving, responsive to searching the biographical sources based on the first search attribute set, entity reflections that include supplemental entity attributes for the real-world entity;

combining supplemental attributes having attributes scores above a predefined threshold with core attributes to define a second search attribute set;

electronically receiving, responsive to searching further web sources based on the second search attribute set, more entity reflections that include meta entity attributes for the real-world entity; and

updating the combination to include one or more of the meta entity attributes having attribute scores above the predefined threshold.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein attribute scores for the entity reflections specify a quantitative assessment of similarity between the attributes of the entity reflections and the core attributes.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein attribute scores for the more entity reflections specify a quantitative assessment of similarity between the attributes of the more entity reflections and a set of the core entity attributes and the supplemental entity attributes above the predefined threshold.

12. A system, including:

one or more processors coupled to memory, the memory loaded with computer instructions that, when executed on the processors, implement actions including;

selecting one or more core entity attributes that represent a real-world entity as a first search attribute set for use in searching biographical sources;

receiving, responsive to searching the biographical sources based on the first search attribute set, entity reflections that include supplemental entity attributes for the real-world entity;

using a combination of the selected core entity attributes and one or more supplemental entity attributes to define a second search attribute set that is narrower than the first search attribute set;

receiving, responsive to searching further web sources based on the second search attribute set, more entity reflections that include meta entity attributes for the real-world entity; and

updating the combination to include one or more of the meta entity attributes.

13. The system of claim 12, further configured to:

select one or more meta entity attributes to combine with the second search attribute set to form a third search attribute set that is narrower than the second search attribute set;

electronically receive, responsive to the third search attribute set, additional entity reflections that include additional meta entity attributes; and

update the combination to include one or more of the additional meta entity attributes.

14. The system of claim 12, further configured to:

generate a set of predicate results from one or more web crawls using predicate analysis based on affix schemas with predetermined context words before and after entity mentions;

apply one or more of the first or second search attribute sets to search among the predicate results set;

electronically receive entity reflections from searching the predicate results set that include predicated entity attributes for the real-world entity; and

update the combination to include one or more of the predicated entity attributes.

15. The system of claim 12, further configured to apply one or more probability distribution functions or joint probability distribution functions to estimate resulting cohort size of entity reflections responsive to the first search attribute set.

16. The system of claim 12, further configured to apply one or more probability distribution functions or joint probability distribution functions to estimate resulting cohort size of entity reflections responsive to the second search attribute set.

17. The system of claim 12, further configured to apply one or more probability distribution functions or joint probability distribution functions to estimate resulting cohort size of entity reflections responsive to the first and second search attribute sets.

18. A system, including:

one or more processors coupled to memory, the memory loaded with computer instructions that, when executed on the processors, implement actions including;

selecting one or more core entity attributes that represent a real-world entity as a first search attribute set for searching biographical sources;

electronically receiving, responsive to searching the biographical sources based on the first search attribute set, entity reflections that include supplemental entity attributes for the real-world entity;

combining supplemental attributes having attributes scores above a predefined threshold with core attributes to define a second search attribute set;

electronically receiving, responsive to searching further web sources based on the second search attribute set, more entity reflections that include meta entity attributes for the real-world entity; and

updating the combination to include one or more of the meta entity attributes having attribute scores above the predefined threshold.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a plurality of instructions for programming one or more processors to identify entity mentions referencing a same real-world entity, the instructions, when executed on the processors, implementing actions including:

selecting one or more core entity attributes that represent a real-world entity as a first search attribute set for use in searching biographical sources, including in the selection applying one or more probability distribution functions or joint probability distribution functions to estimate resulting cohort size;

generating one or more searches for processing by a plurality of biographical sources using the first search attribute set;

electronically receiving, responsive to the first search attribute set, entity reflections that include supplemental entity attributes for the real-world entity;

selecting one or more extended entity attributes as a second search attribute set for use in searching web sources, including applying one or more further probability distribution functions or joint probability distribution functions to estimate resulting cohort size;

generating one or more further web searches using the second search attribute set;

electronically receiving, responsive to the second search attribute set, more entity reflections that include meta entity attributes for the real-world entity; and

updating the anchor entity candidate to include one or more of the meta entity attributes.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a plurality of instructions for programming one or more processors to connect entity reflections to real-world entities in an ambiguous environment, the instructions, when executed on the processors, implementing actions including:

selecting one or more core entity attributes that represent a real-world entity as a first search attribute set for use in searching biographical sources, including in the selection applying one or more probability distribution functions or joint probability distribution functions to estimate resulting cohort size;

generating one or more searches for processing by a plurality of biographical sources using the first search attribute set;

electronically receiving, responsive to the first search attribute set, entity reflections that include supplemental entity attributes for the real-world entity;

calculating attribute scores for supplemental attributes using a probability contribution function, wherein the attribute scores specify a quantitative assessment of similarity between the supplemental attributes and the core attributes;

merging supplemental attributes with attributes scores above a predefined threshold with core attributes in an anchor entity candidate data object with extended entity attributes that represent the real-world entity;

selecting one or more extended entity attributes as a second search attribute set for use in searching web sources, including applying one or more further probability distribution functions or joint probability distribution functions to estimate resulting cohort size;

electronically receiving, responsive to the second search attribute set, more entity reflections that include meta entity attributes for the real-world entity;

calculating attribute scores for meta entity attributes using a probability contribution function, wherein the attribute scores specify a quantitative assessment of similarity between the meta entity attributes and the extended entity attributes; and

updating the anchor entity candidate to include one or more of the meta entity attributes with attribute scores above the predefined threshold.