Disambiguation of online social mentions

• US 9,910,924 B2
• Filed: 10/21/2016
• Issued: 03/06/2018
• 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:
  US15/331,766
• Publication Number:
  US 20170039289A1
• Time in Patent Office: 501 Days
• Field of Search: 707608, 707687, 707706, 707791, 707821, 707828, 707953
• 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 searching online social profiles of real-world entities on an online social network, the method including:

specifying one or more core entity attributes as a first search attribute set for use in searching an online social network;

electronically receiving, responsive to searching the online social network based on the first search attribute set, entity reflections that include supplemental entity attributes for real-world entities; and

using a combination of the core entity attributes and one or more supplemental entity attributes to electronically receive more entity reflections that include meta entity attributes for the real-world entities.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the supplemental entity attributes are shared by the real-world entities.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein at least some of the supplemental entity attributes are used as a filter for receiving a subset of the entity reflections.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the supplemental entity attributes are narrower than the first search attribute set.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the meta entity attributes are narrower than the supplemental entity attributes.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the entity reflections represent one or more online social profiles of the real-world entities.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the entity reflections represent one or more online social mentions of the real-world entities.

8. The method of claim 1, further including:

using an online social profile from the online social network that includes the core entity attributes selected as the first search attribute set used to search the online social network.

9. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium impressed with computer program instructions to search online social profiles of real-world entities on an online social network, which instructions, when executed on a processor, implement a method comprising:

specifying one or more core entity attributes as a first search attribute set for use in searching an online social network;

electronically receiving, responsive to searching the online social network based on the first search attribute set, entity reflections that include supplemental entity attributes for real-world entities; and

using a combination of the core entity attributes and one or more supplemental entity attributes to electronically receive more entity reflections that include meta entity attributes for the real-world entities.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein at least some of the supplemental entity attributes are shared by the real-world entities.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein at least some of the supplemental entity attributes are used as a filter for receiving a subset of the entity reflections.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein at least some of the supplemental entity attributes are narrower than the first search attribute set.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein at least some of the meta entity attributes are narrower than the supplemental entity attributes.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the entity reflections represent one or more online social profiles of the real-world entities.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the entity reflections represent one or more online social mentions of the real-world entities.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, implementing the method further comprising:

using an online social profile from the online social network that includes the core entity attributes selected as the first search attribute set used to search the online social network.

17. A system including one or more processors coupled to memory, the memory loaded with computer instructions to search online social profiles of real-world entities on an online social network the instructions, when executed on the processors, implement actions comprising:

specifying one or more core entity attributes as a first search attribute set for use in searching an online social network;

electronically receiving, responsive to searching the online social network based on the first search attribute set, entity reflections that include supplemental entity attributes for real-world entities; and

using a combination of the core entity attributes and one or more supplemental entity attributes to electronically receive more entity reflections that include meta entity attributes for the real-world entities.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein at least some of the supplemental entity attributes are shared by the real-world entities.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein at least some of the supplemental entity attributes are used as a filter for receiving a subset of the entity reflections.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the entity reflections represent one or more online social profiles of the real-world entities.