System and method for completing a user query and for providing a query response

• US 9,910,932 B2
• Filed: 05/30/2014
• Issued: 03/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Direct Cursus Technology LLC
• Original Assignee: Yandex Europe AG (Yandex N.V.)
• Inventors: Plakhov, Andrey Grigorievich, Shorina, Svetlana Jurievna, Esinovskaya, Irina Viktorovna, Gruntova, Elena Semenovna, Eremeev, Vasiliy Aleksandrovich
• Primary Examiner(s): Ortiz Ditren, Belix M
• Application Number:
  US14/915,549
• Publication Number:
  US 20160210300A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,376 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90324 using system suggestions

Abstract

There is disclosed a method and a system for completing a search query. The method is executable at a server. The method comprises receiving a portion of the search query from an electronic device associated with a user; determining a query-completion suggestion for the received search query portion, the query-completion suggestion based on information searchable within a vertical search domain; determining the most suitable response to the query based on information maintained within the vertical search domain; causing the electronic device to display the user a suggest line, the suggest line including both: (i) the query-completion suggestion and (ii) representation of the most suitable response to the query.

Claims

1. A method of completing a search query, the method executable at a server, the method comprising:

receiving a portion of the search query from an electronic device associated with a user;

determining a first query-completion suggestion for the received search query portion, the first query-completion suggestion based on information searchable within a first vertical search domain;

determining a second query-completion suggestion for the received search query portion, the second query-completion suggestion based on information searchable within a second vertical search domain;

determining a first most suitable response to the search query based on information maintained within the first vertical search domain;

determining a second most suitable response to the search query based on information maintained within the second vertical search domain;

wherein said determining the first most suitable response and the second most suitable response comprises executing a first vertical search based on a first proxy search query and a second vertical search based on a second proxy search query, the first proxy search query comprising said portion of the search query and the first query-completion suggestion and the second proxy search query comprising said portion of the search query and the second query-completion suggestion;

retrieving the first most suitable response to the first proxy search query from the first vertical search;

retrieving the second most suitable response to the second proxy search query from the second vertical search; and

causing the electronic device to display to the user;

(a) a first suggest line on a first line of a suggest box, the first suggest line including both;

(i) the first query-completion suggestion and (ii) a first representation of the first most suitable response;

(b) a second suggest line on a second line of the suggest box, the second suggest line including both;

(i) the second query-completion suggestion and (ii) a second representation of the second most suitable response to the query.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining a first query-completion suggestion and a second query-completion suggestion comprises analyzing the portion of the search query by applying one or more of:

(i) statistical popularity;

(ii) user-specific popularity;

(iii) how often a particular portion of the search query is typically used with determinative terms by other users; and

(iv) other auxiliary information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said auxiliary information comprises one or more of time of day, day of the week, month of the year and holidays soon to come, or is representative of a dynamic parameter.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising using auxiliary information to dynamically update the first query-completion suggestion and the second query-completion suggestion prior to causing the electronic device to display the first suggest line and the second suggest line.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining the first most suitable response further comprises analyzing the search results from the first vertical search domain, and said determining the second most suitable response further comprises analyzing the search results from the second vertical search domain.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said analyzing comprises one or more of:

(i) identifying determinative words contained in the search query or the first or the second query-completion suggestion;

(ii) identifying stop words contained in the search query or the first or the second query-completion suggestion;

(iii) determining frequency of a given search query and a response from the first or the second vertical search domain when other users perform similar search queries; and

(iv) applying auxiliary information logic and selecting the first or the second most suitable response using the auxiliary information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first query-completion suggestion and the representation of the first most suitable response to the query are collapsed into a single entry within the first suggest line, and the second query-completion suggestion and the representation of the second most suitable response to the query are collapsed into a single entry within the second suggest line.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said causing the electronic device to display to the user the first suggest line and the second suggest line comprises causing the electronic device to display a suggest area, the suggest area including the first suggest line and the second suggest line.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said suggest area is a drop down menu from a search interface.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein said suggest area is different from a search query interface and a search result interface.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein said suggest area overlays one of a search interface and a search results interface.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a second portion of the search query, and dynamically updating one or more of the first suggest line and the second suggest line, said dynamically updating being responsive to the second portion of the search query.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein responsive to the user clicking on the first suggest line, the method further comprises executing the search using the portion of the search query and the first query-completion suggestion and displaying a search result page responsive to the executed search.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the search result page includes a search result representative of the first most suitable response.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein said method is executed automatically upon the user entering the portion of the search query.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein said representation of the first most suitable response comprises an answer to the search query and the first query-completion suggestion and said representation of the second most suitable response comprises an answer to the search query and the second query-completion suggestion.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein said representation of the first most suitable response comprises a first link to a first resource containing an answer to the search query and the first query-completion suggestion, and said representation of the second most suitable response comprises a second link to a second resource containing an answer to the search query and the second query-completion suggestion.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein said representation of the first most suitable response comprises a first button, which upon user clicking thereupon, causes the user to appreciate the answer to the search query and the first query-completion suggestion, and said representation of the second most suitable response comprises a second button, which upon user clicking thereupon, causes the user to appreciate the answer to the search query and the second query-completion suggestion.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining the first query-completion suggestion is based on information searchable within the first vertical search domain and a third vertical search domain within a plurality of vertical search domains, the first vertical search domain and the third vertical search domain having been pre-selected in relevancy of the first vertical search domain and the third vertical search domain to the portion of the search query, or is based on information searchable within all of a plurality of vertical search domains.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the first vertical search domain and the second vertical search domain are part of the same vertical search domain.

21. A system for completing a search query, the system comprising:

a server configured to;

receive a portion of the search query from an electronic device associated with a user;

determine a first query-completion suggestion for the received search query portion, the first query-completion suggestion based on information searchable within a first vertical search domain;

determine a second query-completion suggestion for the received search query portion, the second query-completion suggestion based on information searchable within a second vertical search domain;

determine a first most suitable response to the search query based on information maintained within the first vertical search domain;

determine a second most suitable response to the search query based on information maintained within the second vertical search domain,

wherein the first most suitable response and the second most suitable response are determined by executing a first vertical search based on a first proxy search query and a second vertical search based on a second proxy search query, the first proxy search query comprising said portion of the search query and the first query-completion suggestion and the second proxy search query comprising said portion of the search query and the second query-completion suggestion;

retrieve the first most suitable response to the first proxy search query from the first vertical search;

retrieve the second most suitable response to the second proxy search query from the second vertical search; and

cause the electronic device to display to the user;

(a) a first suggest line on a first line of a suggest box, the first suggest line including both;

(i) the first query-completion suggestion and (ii) a first representation of the first most suitable response to the query; and

(b) a second suggest line on a second line of the suggest box, the second suggest line including both;

(i) the second query-completion suggestion and (ii) a second representation of the second most suitable response to the query.