Query rewriting with entity detection

• US 20050222976A1
• Filed: 03/31/2004
• Published: 10/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Pfleger, Karl
• Granted Patent: US 7,996,419 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/243 Natural language query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24534 Query rewriting; Transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3325 Reformulation based on results of preceding query
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3326 using relevance feedback from the user, e.g. relevance feedback on documents, documents sets, document terms or passages
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

A system determines whether a received search query includes an entity name, determines whether to rewrite the received search query based on information relating to prior searches involving the entity name, and rewrites the received search query when it is determined that the received search query should be rewritten. The system further determines whether to provide a suggestion of rewriting the received search query, as a rewriting suggestion, based on information relating to prior searches involving the entity name when it is determined that the received search query should not be rewritten. The system also generates the rewriting suggestion when it is determined that the rewriting suggestion should be provided. The system performs a search based on one of the received search query and the rewritten search query to obtain search results, presents the search results, and presents the rewriting suggestion when it is determined that the rewriting suggestion should be provided.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a search query;

determining whether the received search query includes an entity name;

determining whether to rewrite the received search query based on information relating to prior searches involving the entity name;

rewriting the received search query when it is determined that the received search query should be rewritten;

performing a search based on one of the received search query and the rewritten search query to obtain search results; and

presenting the search results.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a link to the received search query when the search is performed based on the rewritten search query.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether to provide a suggestion of rewriting the received search query, as a rewriting suggestion, based on information relating to prior searches involving the entity name when it is determined that the received search query should not be rewritten; and

generating the rewriting suggestion when it is determined that the rewriting suggestion should be provided.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the rewriting suggestion includes a link to a rewritten search query.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the presenting the search results comprises:

presenting the rewriting suggestion with the search results when it is determined that the rewriting suggestion should be provided.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining whether to provide a suggestion of rewriting the received search query comprises:

identifying entity identifiers associated with documents that were selected in connection with the prior searches involving the entity name,

determining a total number of selections for each of the identified entity identifiers, and

determining that the rewriting suggestion should be provided when an entity identifier associated with the entity name receives a total number of selections greater than other ones of the identified entity identifiers.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether to rewrite the received search query comprises:

identifying entity identifiers associated with documents that were selected in connection with the prior searches involving the entity name,

determining a total number of selections for each of the identified entity identifiers, and

determining that the received search query should be rewritten when an entity identifier associated with the entity name receives a total number of selections greater than other ones of the identified entity identifiers.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the determining whether to rewrite the received search query further comprises:

determining whether the total number of selections for the entity identifier associated with the entity name is greater than a threshold, and

determining that the received search query should not be rewritten when the total number of selections for the entity identifier associated with the entity name is not greater than the threshold.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether to rewrite the received search query comprises:

identifying entity identifiers associated with documents that were selected in connection with the prior searches involving the entity name,

determining a distribution of a total number of selections for each of the identified entity identifiers, and

determining that the received search query should be rewritten when the distribution indicates that the total number of selections for an entity identifier associated with the entity name is peaked compared to the total number of selections for a subset of other ones of the identified entity identifiers.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the rewriting the receive search query comprises:

modifying the received search query to include a restrict identifier associated with the entity name.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the performing a search based on one of the received search query and the rewritten search query comprises:

searching a repository of documents using the rewritten search query when the received search query is rewritten.

12. A system, comprising:

means for receiving a search query;

means for determining whether the received search query includes an entity name;

means for determining whether to rewrite the received search query when the received search query includes an entity name;

means for rewriting the received search query when it is determined that the received search query should be rewritten;

means for performing a search based on one of the received search query and the rewritten search query to obtain search results; and

means for providing the search results.

13. A system, comprising:

a memory to store information relating to prior searches; and

a processor to;

receive a search query,

determine whether the received search query includes an entity name,

determine whether to rewrite the received search query based on the information in the memory,

rewrite the received search query when it is determined that the received search query should be rewritten,

perform a search based on one of the received search query and the rewritten search query to obtain search results, and

present the search results.

14. A method, comprising:

receiving a search query;

determining whether the received search query includes an entity name;

determining whether to provide a suggestion of rewriting the received search query, as a rewriting suggestion, based on information relating to prior searches involving the entity name;

generating the rewriting suggestion when it is determined that the rewriting suggestion should be provided;

performing a search based on the received search query to obtain search results;

presenting the search results; and

providing the rewriting suggestion when the rewriting suggestion should be provided.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the rewriting suggestion includes a link to a rewritten search query.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving selection of the rewriting suggestion;

rewriting the received search query;

performing a search based on the rewritten search query to obtain new search results; and

presenting the new search results.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the determining whether to provide a suggestion of rewriting the received search query comprises:

identifying entity identifiers associated with documents that were selected in connection with the prior searches involving the entity name,

determining a total number of selections for each of the identified entity identifiers, and

determining that the rewriting suggestion should be provided when an entity identifier associated with the entity name receives a total number of selections greater than other ones of the identified entity identifiers.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining whether to rewrite the received search query based on information relating to prior searches involving the entity name; and

rewriting the received search query when it is determined that the received search query should be rewritten.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the determining whether to rewrite the received search query comprises:

identifying entity identifiers associated with documents that were selected in connection with the prior searches involving the entity name,

determining a total number of selections for each of the identified entity identifiers, and

determining that the received search query should be rewritten when an entity identifier associated with the entity name receives a total number of selections greater than other ones of the identified entity identifiers.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the determining whether to rewrite the received search query further comprises:

determining whether the total number of selections for the entity identifier associated with the entity name is greater than a threshold, and

determining that the received search query should not be rewritten when the total number of selections for the entity identifier associated with the entity name is not greater than the threshold.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the determining whether to rewrite the received search query comprises:

identifying entity identifiers associated with documents that were selected in connection with the prior searches involving the entity name,

determining a distribution of a total number of selections for each of the identified entity identifiers, and

determining that the received search query should be rewritten when the distribution indicates that the total number of selections for an entity identifier associated with the entity name is peaked compared to the total number of selections for a subset of other ones of the identified entity identifiers.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the rewriting the receive search query comprises:

modifying the received search query to include a restrict identifier associated with the entity name.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein the performing a search comprises:

searching a repository of documents using the rewritten search query when the received search query is rewritten.

24. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving selection of the rewriting suggestion;

rewriting the received search query;

performing a search based on the rewritten search query to obtain results; and

providing the results and a link to the received search query.

25. A system, comprising:

means for receiving a search query;

means for determining whether the received search query includes an entity name;

means for determining whether to provide a link for rewriting the received search query when the received search query includes the entity name;

means for generating the link when it is determined that the link should be provided;

means for performing a search based on the received search query to obtain search results;

means for providing the search results; and

means for providing the link when the link should be provided.

26. A system, comprising:

a memory to store information relating to prior searches; and

a processor to;

receive a search query,

determine whether the received search query includes an entity name,

determine whether to provide a suggestion of rewriting the received search query, as a rewriting suggestion, based on the information in the memory,

generate the rewriting suggestion when it is determined that the rewriting suggestion should be provided,

perform a search based on the received search query to obtain search results,

present the search results, and

provide the rewriting suggestion when the rewriting suggestion should be provided.

27. A method, comprising:

obtaining an entity name;

identifying an entity identifier that corresponds to the entity name;

producing a list of candidate strings based on variations of the entity name and the entity identifier;

evaluating each of the candidate strings based on information relating to prior searches;

determining whether to include the candidate strings in a table; and

using the table to rewrite a search query prior to performing a search based on the search query.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the producing a list of candidate strings comprises:

transforming the entity name by at least one of removing modifiers, replacing spaces with hyphens or underscores, replacing hyphens or underscores with spaces, removing apostrophes, replacing “

and”

with “

&

,”

replacing “

&

”

with “

and,” and

removing “

and” and

“

&

.”

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the producing a list of candidate strings comprises:

transforming the entity identifier by at least one of replacing “

and”

with “

&

,”

replacing “

&

”

with “

and,”

removing “

and” and

“

&

,”

removing “

www.,”

removing “

.com,” and

treating periods with no spaces on either side of the periods as spaces or deleting the periods.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein the determining whether to include the candidate strings in a table comprises:

identifying entity identifiers associated with documents that were selected in connection with the prior searches involving a candidate string of the candidate strings,

determining a total number of selections for each of the identified entity identifiers, and

determining that the candidate string should be included in the table when an entity identifier associated with the candidate string receives a total number of selections greater than other ones of the identified entity identifiers.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the determining whether to include each of the candidate strings in a table further comprises:

determining whether the total number of selections for the entity identifier associated with the candidate string is greater than a threshold, and

determining that the candidate string should not be included in the table when the total number of selections for the entity identifier associated with the candidate string is not greater than the threshold.

32. The method of claim 27, wherein the determining whether to include the candidate strings in a table comprises:

identifying entity identifiers associated with documents that were selected in connection with the prior searches involving a candidate string of the candidate strings,

determining a distribution of a total number of selections for each of the identified entity identifiers, and

determining that the candidate string should be included in the table when the distribution indicates that the total number of selections for an entity identifier associated with the candidate string is peaked compared to the total number of selections for a subset of other ones of the identified entity identifiers.

33. The method of claim 27, wherein the using the table to rewrite a search query comprises:

receiving a search query that includes a variation of the entity name or the entity identifier,

determining whether the variation of the entity name or the entity identifier is included in the table, and

rewriting the search query when the variation of the entity name or the entity identifier is included in the table.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the rewriting the search query comprises:

modifying the search query to include a restrict identifier associated with the entity name.

35. A system, comprising:

means for obtaining an entity name;

means for generating a list of candidate strings based on variations of the entity name;

means for evaluating each of the candidate strings based on information relating to prior searches;

means for determining whether to include the candidate strings in a table; and

means for using the table to rewrite a search query prior to performing a search based on the search query.

36. A system, comprising:

a memory to store information relating to prior searches; and

a processor to;

identify an entity name,

generate variations of the entity name,

evaluate each of the variations of the entity name based on information relating to prior searches to determine whether to include the variations of the entity name in a table, and

use the table to rewrite a search query prior to performing a search based on the search query.

37. A method, comprising:

obtaining an entity name;

generating variations of the entity name;

evaluating each of the variations of the entity name based on information relating to prior searches;

determining whether to include the variations of the entity name in a table;

receiving a search query that includes one of the variations of the entity name;

determining whether the one variation of the entity name is included in the table; and

suggesting a different search query for the received search query when the one variation of the entity name is included in the table.

38. A method, comprising:

receiving a search query;

determining whether the received search query includes an entity name;

determining whether to rewrite the received search query based on information relating to prior searches involving the entity name;

rewriting the received search query when it is determined that the received search query should be rewritten;

determining whether to provide a suggestion of rewriting the received search query, as a rewriting suggestion, based on information relating to prior searches involving the entity name when it is determined that the received search query should not be rewritten;

generating the rewriting suggestion when it is determined that the rewriting suggestion should be provided;

performing a search based on one of the received search query and the rewritten search query to obtain search results;

presenting the search results; and

presenting the rewriting suggestion when it is determined that the rewriting suggestion should be provided.

39. A method, comprising:

receiving a search query;

determining whether the received search query includes a store name;

determining whether to rewrite the received search query based on information relating to prior searches involving the store name;

rewriting the received search query to include a restrict identifier associated with the store name when it is determined that the received search query should be rewritten;

performing a search based on one of the received search query and the rewritten search query to obtain search results; and

presenting the search results.

40. A method, comprising:

receiving a search query;

determining whether the received search query includes a name of a news source;

determining whether to rewrite the received search query based on information relating to prior searches involving the name of the news source;

rewriting the received search query to include a restrict identifier associated with the name of the news source when it is determined that the received search query should be rewritten;

performing a search based on one of the received search query and the rewritten search query to obtain search results; and

presenting the search results.